Starkid and the Marauders
by Messr. Moony the Wolf
Summary: Three average girls have just graduated high school. But when they decide to sing in their town's local festival, they're thrown headfirst into a world of new friends and new feelings, with some confusion and sadness thrown in there as well. This is a RL fic, with my OCs meeting Starkids. Formerly in Mic Plays/Musicals. T for language.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Squeal! I'm back to writing! Ah, the blissful bliss of summer. Where there is no schoolwork or sports or social activities to distract me. Which means I can watch YouTube videos and chill out and, of course, write as much as I want! Now, as I'm sure you can guess, I am a huge Starkid fan. This is purely the work of my imagination, and does not represent any of the Starkids directly. I've never met them, I'm making up their personalities and such. I also don't want to offend any of them, so apologies in advance if they don't like the story or find there to be something wrong with it. All I'm trying to do here is write a good story for other Starkid fans to read and, hopefully, enjoy. I hope you like it!**

**Disclaimer: I do not know the Starkids. If any details about them are incorrect, it is because I am twisting reality a bit to make it work with my story. Apologies for any offense caused – I can assure you it is/was unintentional. Also, I do not own any of the Starkid productions or music mentioned in this story. They own it because they're cooler than me. Nor do I know any of their backgrounds/life stories, and any details about their past that you see here may, and probably are, completely made up.**

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Chapter 1: Permission

Olivia Ioria was bored. She was sitting in her best friend Mackenzie Britten's room with the third member of their little trio, Kat Hightower. Kenzie was lying lifelessly on her bed, her face turned towards her friends and a blank expression on her face. Kat was lying on the small, white couch stroking Mackenzie's blue-gray cat Freeze. This left Olivia lying on the floor with her hands behind her head, gazing at Mackenzie in a peculiar, almost upside-down way.

"Well this is fun," Kat said in a dry, sarcastic tone. The other two snorted and Kenzie nodded.

"Sorry guys. This is getting ridiculous," Mackenzie said.

"I know, right?" Olivia chimed in from her surprisingly comfy spot on the wood floor. "I think this is the third time we've tried to get together to play volleyball in someone's yard and it's rained. This would only happen to us," she added with a roll of her eyes. That made the other two laugh and voice their agreement.

The trio of girls was somewhat well known around their school for having the worst luck ever, especially when it came to weather, time, and injuries. None of them had a functional internal clock, and therefore had no sense of how much time had passed while they were doing something. They were often early or late when they didn't have a clock available. As for injuries… well, there hadn't been anything life threatening. Yet. Most of their injuries were just ironic. Kat had sprained an ankle playing volleyball two weeks before volleyball tryouts that past fall, which meant she had almost been unable to try out. Mackenzie had found out she was mildly allergic to chlorine; she was one of the best swimmers on the school's swim team. Olivia had gotten hit in the face with a bat during softball tryouts and ended up with a mild concussion that had forced her to the bench for the first three games. Each one sported a vast number of bruises, scrapes, and tiny scars from assorted mild injuries. They couldn't remember where half of them came from, and they didn't really care. They had been shoved together during volleyball camp two summers ago for a three-on-three tournament. After winning in their age group, the girls had quickly bonded over mutual bad luck, volleyball and softball, and a love of both the Harry Potter books and Team Starkid. They could often be found talking about Harry Potter or Starkid, and usually preferred listening to Starkid music over anything currently on the radio.

Olivia abruptly remembered that Mackenzie had a laptop, and sat up. She started looking around her best friend's room, moving stuff around and poking through the closet without concern for her friend's privacy. She turned when Kenzie cleared her throat behind her, and saw that her friend was holding out the Macbook with a look of amusement on her face. She took the laptop with a sheepish grin and powered it up. She immediately went to YouTube and turned on one of their favorite songs - Granger Danger from A Very Potter Musical. Identical grins appeared on Mackenzie and Kat's faces when the first notes rang out into the room, effectively shattering the silence. Humming along with the guitar part, Olivia opened up a new tab and went to their shared e-mail account. It was with this that they'd e-mailed the Town Hall two days ago to ask a very important question.

The town of Concord, Massachusetts, where the trio lived, hosted a Friday through Sunday, town-wide festival every year in June. It was designed to celebrate both the arts, the skill of people in the town, and the end of the school year. This festival was in just over a month, and the girls had decided that they wanted to sing there.

It had been Kat's idea originally. They'd been joking around about the festival when she'd mentioned in passing that it would be cool to have an act at some point. Olivia and Mackenzie had agreed and they'd all stored the little bit of information in the back of their minds. When sign-ups had started, they'd agreed that they were going to sign up, but had no idea what they were going to do. Kenzie stepped in and suggested singing. Olivia had been the most reluctant – she'd never sang in front of a crowd, even in a choir, and never had a singing lesson in her life. It had taken a bit of convincing, but she'd eventually hopped on board with the plan. Then came the puzzle of what to sing. It had taken all of three minutes for them to agree on Starkid music. The only problem was, when they went to sign up, the people at the Town Hall had never heard of Starkid, and didn't know the music. They'd told the girls to e-mail them a list of the songs they were thinking about performing so that the lyrics could be reviewed to make sure that they were relatively appropriate for children aged 12 and up.

The trio had spent hours agonizing over which songs to include and which to omit. All the songs from Me and My Dick and been omitted immediately. They figured that any song they tried would be shot down for inappropriate content. Then came the really tricky part of finding the songs that they liked the most with the fewest swears. They'd scrapped To Be a Man next, seeing as the chorus was: "Fuck you, I'm gonna kick your ass! Fuck you, I'm taking you down, fuck you!" They'd agreed on Goin' Back to Hogwarts as an opener, seeing as it was one of the most well known songs. Granger Danger was the next to go on the list, with a few lyrical edits by Olivia. They jokingly called the new song Ranger Danger because she'd changed the chorus to: "I think I'm falling in love, falling in love, falling in love with a starship ranger!" Olivia had suggested I Wanna Be next, which Kat had been quick to agree to. Kenzie had never seen Starship at that point, so they watched it together and got her approval. Kat had practically begged to sing the Kick it Up a Notch reprise, so they'd thrown it in there. Mackenzie had desperately wanted to sing one of Harry's solo songs, so they'd offered To Have a Home, which she'd gladly accepted. Then it had occurred to them that they hadn't looked at Holy Musical B man at all, so they headed over there. Super Friends was an obvious choice; they knew the entire dance as well as the words. After much consideration, they'd decided to include The Dynamic Duet because no one really wanted to sing Holy Musical B man, The American Way, Robin Sucks, Rogues Are We, or the Rogues Are We reprise. Olivia had tentatively offered to sing Status Quo, which the other two had fallen over themselves to agree to, seeing as she was the only one without a solo song so far. Days of Summer was quickly added, along with The Coolest Girl. They toyed around with the idea of Pigfarts, Pigfarts, Here I Come, but had eventually decided against it. It was kind of an inside joke for the play, and you definitely had to have seen it to understand what was going on in the song. Mackenzie had suggested Boy Toy from Little White Lie, which they'd agreed to because it was a pointless song that would probably make the listeners laugh. Olivia had suggested The Way I Do from Starship, which everyone had liked after listening to it a few times. Kat had brought up Stutter and Gettin' Along moments before they'd sent the e-mail, which had led to a revision of the list. Then Mackenzie had thought of Different as Can Be while adding those two, which had led to another revision.

The list had been checked about six or seven times before they'd finally sent it off. That had been almost five days ago. The girls had been obsessively checking the e-mail every hour the past four days, and had continued to do so today. Olivia drummed her fingers on the computer, perfectly in time with the beat. Her friends were singing along, but she didn't join in until the chorus.

"This could mean danger! I'm falling in love, falling in love, falling in love! I could be falling in love, falling in love, falling in love with a starship ranger!" All three girls roared out 'starship ranger' at the end, completely drowning out Joey Richter's voice telling them he was falling for Hermione Granger. Then they collapsed into giggles at their own crazy fan-ness. Olivia looked down from the ceiling, which she'd been shouting the lyrics at, to find that the e-mail's inbox had loaded. And sitting there was an e-mail from town hall. She immediately paused Granger Danger, ignoring her friends' annoyed and confused expressions, and opened the e-mail.

"Guys, it's from town hall! Let me read it!" An expectant silence filling the room instantly as both Mackenzie and Kat turned their full attention to the girl on the floor. She cleared her throat.

"Okay, here goes. 'Dear Misses Ioria, Britten, and Hightower: We are delighted to inform you that all of the songs you have selected have been passed by our inspectors. You are free to perform them on any and all festival days, so long as you have a stage or space to perform on or in. If you need assistance in procuring a stage, contact Mrs. Margaret Steele, chairwoman of the festival for this year.' And then there's a phone number and e-mail address, but no point in reading those." Olivia looked up at her friends, her eyes sparkling with excitement and something that neither of the other two could read before it winked out. "Guys, do you get what this means?"

"It means we need to get our hands on a stage so we can start rehearsing ASAP!" Kat's voice cut through Olivia's, drowning her out with her own opinion. Everyone laughed and nodded.

"Let's do this thing," Mackenzie said determinedly, picking up the phone. "Where's that phone number?"

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o

Three hours later, they found out that determination could not overcome everything. They'd called Mrs. Steele, who'd given them the names and phone numbers of several directors of local places they could sing at, mostly stages. But as they'd called each one, they'd been turned away, either because they didn't have the money to pay or because they were kids. Every single stage but one had been crossed off the list; the only person left to call was the director of a stage that was being set up in the local park. No one was optimistic, seeing as the stage was only set up when everyone knew that there was a band coming. It was Olivia's turn to make a call, so she picked up the phone and carefully dialed the number. It was picked up on the first ring.

"Hello?" The voice on the other end of the line was definitely a guy, and he sounded calm and collected.

"Hi, is this Mr. Hantlin, director of the stage in the park?" Olivia was using her most professional voice, which she usually saved for when she was umpiring. Her friends were snickering at how adult she sounded, and she sent them a fierce glare.

"Yes, may I ask who's calling?"

"This is Olivia Ioria. I'm a resident of Concord, and I had a question about the festival next month, if it's not too much trouble."

"No trouble, no trouble at all!" He sounded much more friendly now. "What's your question?" Olivia took a deep breath.

"Well, I'm part of a trio of singers. The other two are my best friends, Kat Hightower and Mackenzie Britten. Town Hall has agreed to allow us to perform during the festival, but only if we can find a stage or space to perform on or in. Would it be possible for us to perform on your stage at some point during the weekend?" Olivia held her breath as the man on the other side of the line was silent for a moment. Finally, he spoke.

"How many songs would you be performing?"

"We currently have sixteen picked out." Mr. Hantlin whistled in surprise.

"That's quite a few songs you've got there," he pointed out.

"Yes, we were a little surprised ourselves when we counted them up. However, at least one is less than a minute, and most have large instrumental parts as well."

"Well, I would love to have you girls, but I'm not in charge of picking the performers. However, if you like, I can ask you a few things and tell my coworkers, and we'll make a joint decision about it. Does that sound okay?" Olivia's face lit up, and her friends looked at her questioningly. She held up a finger to tell them to wait a minute.

"Of course! Ask whatever you need to."

"Could you please repeat your names and tell me everyone's ages."

"Olivia Ioria, age 18. Kat Hightower, age 18. Mackenzie Britten, age 17."

"Excellent. Who is the artist of the songs you will be singing? Or, if there's more than one, please tell me all of them."

"Well, all the songs are by a theater company calling Starkid Productions, or Team Starkid. Would you like me to list all the singers?"

"Do you know them all?"

"Actually, yes," Olivia said, which earned her a chuckle from the other end of the line.

"Then please do."

"Okay, this is kind of a long list. Darren Criss, Lauren Lopez, Joey Richter, Dylan Saunders, Bonnie Gruesen, Tyler Brunsman, Devin Lytle, Joe Walker, Meredith Stepien, Brant Cox, Nick Lang, Brian Holden, Brian Rosenthal, Denise Donovan, and Chris Allen. Then there are several people who sing as part of an ensemble, like in a big group, because all the songs are from musicals except one. Do you want me to name those people too?"

"No, no, no, the list you gave is more than sufficient," Mr. Hantlin responded quickly. "I just need to call my coworkers, and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Can I reach you at this number for the rest of the day?"

"Yes, most definitely," Olivia assured him.

"Okay, I'll get back to you as soon as possible," he said kindly.

"Great, thank you so much Mr. Hantlin!" Olivia said brightly. She could hear the smile in his voice as he replied.

"You are very welcome Miss Ioria! I'll talk to you later."

"Excellent! Goodbye!"

"Goodbye." There was a click over the other end of the line, but Olivia kept the phone up to her ear for another moment before slowly lowering it and pressing the "end call" button. She knew that there was a grin spreading slowly across her face as she looked up at her friends.

"Well?" Kat said expectantly, annoyance flickering in her gaze. Kenzie laughed.

"Yeah, come on Liv! We both know how impatient Kat is!" Kat chucked a pillow at Kenzie's head, which the younger girl ducked. Laughter rang around the room as pillows flew everywhere. Olivia silenced them, the occasional giggle escaping her mouth.

"Come on guys, don't you want to know what he said?" Both of the other girls immediately dropped their pillows and turned to face her. She chuckled at their sudden silence.

"He said that he was going to call some coworkers and tell them what I told him about us and they'll make a decision together. This is way better than what anyone else told us!"

"This is fantastic!" Mackenzie exclaimed, her face glowing with excitement. Kat nodded with agreement.

"Yeah, except I have no idea when he's going to actually going to call back," Olivia pointed out. That led to a short silence while the other two digested this.

"Well, why don't we figure out the parts for the songs while we wait," Kenzie suggested. They all agreed, and prepared for hours of talking.

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**AN: Well, this chapter was going to be longer, but I felt like this was a good place to end it. Well, I usually can't write a cliffie, but this is a pretty good one, I think. I'd appreciate it if you let me know what you think of this chapter and this story idea! Reviews are always appreciated and I hope to get a new chapter out relatively soon! Thanks to all you reviewers in advance!**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Well, I'm feeling adventurous, so I started this less than twenty-four hours after I finished chapter one, and before I posted chapter one. Actually, I started this before my beta read chapter one. Well, I guess that's a good thing. Anyway, keep those reviews coming!**

**A couple of quick notes: first, the more reviews I get, the more I know people like and are interested in the story! More reviews = more chapters! Second, on the topic of ages. I will be changing the ages of most of the Starkids, for plot reasons. The story flows better if they're closer the ages of Olivia, Kat, and Mackenzie. Therefore, the vast majority of them are going to lose a few years so that everyone is around 23. Some will be older, but none younger, because then they'd still be in college. I would appreciate it if I don't get any reviews bashing me because your favorite Starkid is now three years younger. Thanks!**

**Disclaimer: I don't know the Starkids, not trying to offend, don't own any of the music or shows, blah blah blah. For the full thing, see chapter one. I don't wanna write all that out again.**

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Chapter 2: Rehearsals and YouTube

Olivia leaned her head back against Mackenzie's bed and groaned. As it turned out, splitting up the parts in a semi-fair way was extremely difficult. They'd spent the past two hours trying to do it, and had only gotten through half their list of songs. It was exhausting to just argue back and forth about who would sing what because what each girl wanted to sing and what each girl was able to sing sometimes differed very greatly.

Olivia was the only one who'd ever taken a composing class, and had a better ear for notes and intervals than the other two, so she was the only one who could move parts around and transpose them into different octaves. However, this took a lot of time and effort on her part, and she tried to avoid it for the most part. It was hard enough for her to figure out who was going to sing what in songs with more than three parts, even with the other girls' help. So, for the most part, they were stuck with what they could sing already.

What they did agree to move around were some of the things in Goin' Back to Hogwarts. Everyone knew that there was no way they could keep everything the same. It ended up with Mackenzie singing for Harry and Draco, Kat singing for Ron and Dumbledore, and Olivia singing for Hermione and Cedric. Both Kat and Kenzie were going to be the Cho Chang girls, and all of them were going to sing in the areas where large groups of students sing. The only other very hard ones were ones where there were only male parts, there was only one part but they didn't want it to be a solo, and Super Friends. Super Friends was hard because all the parts kind of overlapped in spots, so it was hard for them to figure out how to give everyone parts where they didn't have to sing with themselves. They finally decided that Kat would sing for Batman and Superman, Kenzie would sing for Spiderman, and Olivia would sing for Robin and Green Lantern. They would all sing in the chorus of superheroes at the end. Songs with only male parts were hard because both Kenzie and Kat had relatively high voices, and only Olivia could actually pull off sounding like a guy. And even then it was a bit of a stretch sometimes to get the lower notes that weren't actually that low. Stutter was difficult, but they eventually split it up by verse; Kat would sing the first verse (Do you remember that time?), Mackenzie would sing the second verse (Do you remember that night?), and Olivia would close out the song (Too bad you a loser.). Now they were arguing about Gettin' Along and Different as Can Be.

Olivia looked back up at her friends, tuning in to their voices once again.

"This is so difficult," Kat groaned, her head flopping onto the armrest of the couch. Mackenzie made a noise somewhere between a groan and a snort from where she was laying on her bed. Olivia sighed.

"Have we figured out anything with these two songs yet?"

"Nope," Kat said glumly. "I really want to sing both Umbridge and Voldemort, but I can't do the Umbridge voice right!"

"And I don't really care, but I'd rather sing in Gettin' Along," Kenzie said. "It's more upbeat and fun to dance to." Olivia shifted around so her laptop was sitting on the floor in front of her and stretched her arms above her head.

"How about I sing Umbridge? I can do a pretty good voice," she offered. Both girls nodded, relieved to accomplish something.

"Awesome. What about the other three parts?" Mackenzie and Kat groaned again.

"I definitely want to sing Voldemort," Kat said firmly. Olivia nodded, and Kenzie agreed, so that was written down.

"Kenzie, you need at least one part," Olivia pointed out. "Do you want to sing Dumbledore with me or Quirrel with Kat?" Kenzie clicked her tongue on the roof of her mouth as she thought.

"Like I said before, I'd rather sing in Gettin' Along," she stated. Olivia nodded.

"Congratulations, you have been cast as Dumbledear," she muttered as she wrote it down. Both Mackenzie and Kat laughed.

"I think I'll wear a sign around my neck that says 'Not even half as cool as Dylan Saunders' while we perform," Mackenzie said dryly, which pretty much sent them into hysterics.

"I'll wear one that says 'Not even half as funny as Joe Walker' during Super Friends," Kat offered jokingly, once she'd recovered from her laughing fit. Olivia snorted.

"Well, just to stay with the theme, I'll have one that says 'Nowhere near as cute as Joey Richter' for I Wanna Be," Olivia said sarcastically. This brought fresh laughter, which led to all of them getting the hiccups.

"Oh fan–hic!–tastic," Kat groaned. "Now I – hic! – can't even speak correctly!" All of them were still giggling as Mackenzie led them into the kitchen and handed out glasses of water. They each took small sips, trying not to spit the water across the kitchen as they hiccupped. When they were finally cured, they remained in the kitchen for a few moments. Olivia checked her phone for the umpteenth time in the past five minutes, but there was still no call. It was only 2:30 in the afternoon, so maybe they were still talking about it after their lunch break or something. She nodded slightly to herself at that reasoning. There were plenty of perfectly logical reasons why he hadn't called back yet. She refocused on reality and saw Kenzie looking at her expectantly.

"I'm sorry, what did you say? I was thinking about something else," she explained. Kenzie rolled her eyes and Kat snickered.

"I asked if you wanted a sandwich. I'm making Kat and myself Nutella sandwiches. Want one?" Olivia nodded eagerly; Nutella was only her favorite food ever.

"So what were you thinking about that made you so distracted?" Kat asked slyly. Olivia quirked an eyebrow.

"Actually, I was thinking of logical reasons why Mr. Hantlin hasn't called back. What did you think I was thinking about?" Kat rolled her eyes.

"Oh, suuuuure you were. I think you were daydreaming about a certain particular boy from your Latin class!" Kat crowed in a singsong voice as she darted out of Olivia's reach. True to form, Olivia swung her open hand where her friend's head had been moments before.

"I was not! Besides, we've been through this. Ben doesn't like me that way. Friends, remember?" Mackenzie looked over her shoulder and rolled her eyes.

"Because he's just being friendly when he walks with you to your car every day after school, even though he lives in the opposite direction?"

"If you must know, I drive him home because both his parents work and take both cars!" Olivia snapped, actually getting a little annoyed now. Her two friends gave her sheepish looks.

"Okay, bad example," Kat said. "How about… um… that time when he…"

"See, you don't even have a valid argument," Olivia said. "You can't even think of a time when he's done something that would imply he wants to be more than friends." Just then, her phone buzzed from where it was lying on the counter. Everyone froze and looked at it as though it were a bomb. Then Olivia leapt across the kitchen and snatched it up, a hesitantly expectant expression on her face. Then her face fell and she groaned.

"It's not Mr. Hantlin. False alarm." Kat and Kenzie groaned too, and Kat looked at her, annoyed.

"Well, who is it? I wanna yell at them for getting my hopes up." Olivia rolled her eyes and looked down at the screen as she flipped it open.

"It's a text from Ben," she muttered, which sent the other two into hysterics.

"Oh, that is too good!" Kat crowed. "Just as you're trying to claim that he wants to be more then friends… that kid has great timing."

"Whatever," Olivia muttered as she opened the message. She was aware of her friends chuckling around her, but ignored them in favor of reading the message.

_Hey, what's up? _It read. She smiled slightly.

_Not 2 much. Waiting 4 some1 2 call me back._ She replied. She sat down and started eating her sandwich. She'd only taken a few bites when her phone vibrated again.

_Who're you waiting 2 talk 2?_ She took a sip of the glass of milk Mackenzie had brought her and swallowed while she replied.

_Mr. Hantlin. He's the guy tht runs the stage in the park 4 the festival. Kat, Kenzie, and I r singing, if he'll let us use his stage. _She wolfed down the rest of her sandwich as she waited for a response. She was vaguely aware of Kat and Kenzie arguing about something rather loudly, but didn't feel like getting involved. When her phone buzzed again, she picked it up and almost flipped it open, expecting a text. When she saw that it was a call from the same number she'd dialed hours earlier, she almost had a heart attack.

"GUYS SHUT UP!" she yelled. They looked at her, startled, but when they saw her raising the phone to her ear, they instantly fell silent.

"Hello?" she said calmly.

"Hi, is this Olivia Ioria?" Mr. Hantlin's pleasant voice came through the line.

"Yes, it is. Is this Mr. Hantlin?"

"Yes, it is! I'm so glad that I could get back to you this quickly. Luckily, we had a meeting today anyway, so I just brought up your request there," Mr. Hantlin explained.

"Excellent!" Olivia said brightly. "What did everyone else think of having us sing?"

"Well, it was a long and relatively painful discussion," Mr. Hantlin admitted. "We ended up looking through your available school and athletic records, as well as any past performance records. My coworkers wanted to know as much about you as possible without actually talking to you. But, after minimal arguments, we came to the unanimous agreement that you'll be allowed to sing on our stage!"

For a minute, Olivia couldn't move. She was pretty sure she was in shock. So many emotions were flying through her head at once… she was overjoyed, and that was the prominent one, but she was also terrified. She'd never sang in front of a crowd, let alone sang a solo in front of a crowd!

"Olivia? Olivia, are you still there?" Mr. Hantlin's concerned voice snapped her back to reality. She gave herself a little shake.

"Sorry Mr. Hantlin! I'm still here, I was just a little shocked when you told me that," she explained quickly. He laughed.

"No problem! Now, a few quick things before I let you go. Your slot will be Friday night at 7:30, which is June 8th. Does that sound good to you?"

"That sounds perfect," Olivia agreed quickly.

"Excellent," he said cheerfully. "And one other thing; do you three have some sort of stage name? If you don't, we could just introduce you by your own names, but that would be a little strange, I think. But if you don't have one, it's perfectly fine." Olivia thought rapidly. It only took a second for a particular memory to drop into her mind.

It had been almost two years ago, when they were sophomores. The three of them had been sitting in Kat's room, talking about Harry Potter, when Mackenzie had brought up James, Lily, Sirius, and Remus. This had led to an intense conversation about which Marauder they'd be. It took almost an hour, but they'd finally decided that Olivia was Moony, Kat was Padfoot, and Kenzie was Prongs. They'd jokingly referred to themselves as 'The Marauders' ever since.

"Yes, I can think of one. You can call us The Marauders," she told him, as she looked at her friends for approval. She figured that the fact that they were nodding so violently it looked like they were having a seizure meant it was okay.

"That's perfect!" Mr. Hantlin said brightly. "I'll email you any other details you need to know!"

"Great! Thank you so much Mr. Hantlin," Olivia said happily.

"You're very welcome! I look forward to meeting you in person as soon as possible!"

"Sounds great!"

"We'll set up some rehearsal times for you as soon as we can," Mr. Hantlin promised. "I'll email you with those details as well."

"Awesome!"

"Alright, goodbye."

"Goodbye!" Olivia hit end on the phone and looked up at her friends.

"So I would take the fact that we needed a band name to mean that we're singing?" Kat asked casually. When Olivia nodded, her face lit up, along with Kenzie's. They exchanged glances and simultaneously started jumping around the kitchen, screaming excitedly. Olivia's phone was still in her hand, so she noticed when it vibrated, even over all the screaming. She stopped bouncing and opened it.

_Oh thts cool. Hope you get to sing! :) _She grinned widely at Ben's text.

_OMG WE GOT IN! WE GET TO SING AT THE FESTIVAL! _She sent back excitedly. Less than a minute later, she got a response.

_Haha, ur totally not excited or anything!_

_How did you guess! Haha, I am excited, bt I wish there was a way we cud tell all the Starkid fans in the area… so they cud come & sing along & so we cud have more ppl come and listen to us! XD _She looked up from her phone and burst out laughing when she saw that Kat and Kenzie were holding hands and jumping around in circles still screaming and cheering with joy. She was tempted to take a video of it, but her phone buzzing distracted her.

_Why dnt u post it on Facebook? Or, even better, do any of u hav a YT account? U cud make an announcement video, lol. Just like those Starkids tht ur so fond of! _She rolled her eyes at the teasing statement in the last sentence. Ben had never understood their slight obsession with Starkid – he was always more into being behind the camera then in front of it anyway. But he had accepted the fact that she and her friends liked it and moved on, which she greatly appreciated. And now he had come up with a fantastic idea.

_Dude, ur a genius. _After sending off the quick message, she looked up to find her friends watching her.

"What?" she asked blankly. Kat and Kenzie exchanged a glance.

"You looked obscenely happy to just be texting someone. Who were you texting?" Kenzie asked.

"Ben, and -" Olivia started, but Kat cut her off.

"Oh, Beeeeeennnn. Well, that explains the look of immense happiness!" Olivia smacked her hard on the shoulder, which caused Kat to squeal a little bit.

"Actually, I'm happy because he had a great idea! He suggested that we make an announcement video for our show, just like Starkid does all the time. That way, we could let other Starkids in the area know, so maybe they could come see it!"

"Wait," Mackenzie said slowly. "Which day are we performing on again?"

"June 8th, a Friday. Why do you ask?" Olivia said, puzzled. Mackenzie groaned.

"That's the day before their Apocalyptour show in Boston!" she exclaimed. "No one's gonna want to hear all the music two days in a row!"

"That's a lie," Kat said flatly. "I think most of them would be delighted to hear it before the show. That way, we can refresh their memories on some of the lyrics they might've forgotten. Besides, it's such good music. Who wouldn't want to hear it twice?" Olivia voiced her agreement.

"And besides," Olivia continued. "What about the people who aren't going to Apocalyptour, like us? They'll probably be delighted to have a chance to hear all the music live, and for free to boot." Mackenzie reluctantly agreed, and they hunted around for a camera. This led to Olivia almost tripping over Kat and falling down the stairs, Kat almost crushing the cat, and Kenzie almost allowing everything to fall out of her pantry.

After twenty minutes of hunting, Mackenzie finally found her family's video camera jammed behind the sofa in the basement. No one had any idea why it was there, but they didn't really care. They went back to Mackenzie's room and spent ten minutes trying to figure out how the tripod worked.

'This is way too difficult," Kat growled as she held several rods in her arms. Mackenzie had the rest of the rods and the camera, and Olivia was holding the directions. Olivia frowned at said directions, twisting the paper this way and that, trying to make some sense of it. Then she realized the problem.

"Guys… these directions are in Spanish." Kat and Kenzie groaned simultaneously. No one wanted to attempt to translate the large page of Spanish, and Google Translate was way too inaccurate to be trusted.

"I got this," Kenzie said. She grabbed a bunch of books that had been lying around her room and stacked them up in a sort of pyramid, placing the camera on top. It was now just high enough that if they sat, their heads wouldn't be cut off.

"Okay, I'm gonna turn this on, and you guys start talking. I'll casually sneak in next to you Kenzie. Start by introducing yourselves," Olivia instructed. They nodded and sat down in front of the camera. Olivia turned it on. She held up three fingers and pressed the record button as she was lowering the last one. Kat started.

"Hi, I'm Kat Hightower." Olivia snuck into the frame, casually sitting next to Mackenzie.

"I'm Mackenzie Britten."

"And I'm Olivia Ioria! And we're also known as The Marauders! Well, we're going to be known as that for the Concord Music and Arts Festival, where we will be singing!" Olivia felt really weird talking to the camera, but she quickly discovered that if she pretended the stuffed animals on Mackenzie's bed, which was behind the camera, were alive and she was talking to them it was much easier.

"Yep, we'll be there at 7:30 on Friday, June 8th on the stage in the park! From what I understand, there will be some sort of tent enclosure over the stage that extends outward so that you can all come and see us, even if it's raining!" Kat had put so much fake cheeriness into her voice at the end that both Olivia and Mackenzie were fighting to keep their laughter from escaping. Kat gave Kenzie a pointed look, and the latter jumped a little.

"Right! My turn to talk!" Both her friends snorted, and she shot them each a glare. "Anyway, what I was trying to say is that the point of this video is to tell you what we're singing! And the answer is; Starkid music!" Mackenzie had thrown her hands in the air at the words 'Starkid music;' Kat and successfully dodged the flying hands – Olivia hadn't been as lucky. Mackenzie's had had connected solidly with her nose, causing her to yelp with pain. Kenzie looked over at the yelp and immediately started examining her friend's nose to make sure it wasn't bleeding. Luckily, Kat was uninjured and took over the speaking.

"Yep, Starkid music! We're performing songs from Holy Musical Batman, AVPM, AVPS, and Starship! We wanted to do some from Me and My Dick, but we figured the organizers wouldn't like that too much. Seeing as there are going to be some younger kids there, and we don't want to give them any ideas about anything inappropriate." She glanced over at her friends and saw that Olivia was not bleeding profusely. "Oh good, no bloody nose."

"Yep, I'm okay," she said cheerfully. "So, like we said earlier, we will be at the stage in the park in the center of town at 7:30 PM on Friday, June 8th! We hope that any of you Starkid fans who live in or around Concord can come and see us! Yeah…" she looked around at her friends. "I think that's it. Okay, hope to see you there! Bye!" Kat had slipped around to the camera and stopped recording as soon as Olivia finished.

"I think that went well," Kenzie said as she stretched. Olivia nodded as Kat picked up the camera from its book pyramid.

"Let's get this on the Internet," Kat said determinedly. The other two nodded in agreement and quickly found a cable compatible with the camera and Mackenzie's laptop. They plugged it in and downloaded the video. They spent about five minutes watching it and making some minor edits. When they were satisfied, Kat went to YouTube and logged into her account. The video took about a minute to upload. When it was done, they just stared at it for a minute.

"Okay, I feel like we should mention this performance somewhere else," Kat finally said. "Let's face it, there are millions upon billions of YouTube videos, and it's very unlikely that someone will find this on their own."

"Why don't you put it on Facebook?" Olivia suggested. She didn't have one herself, but both Kat and Kenzie did, and she was pretty sure there was a way to post a video or a link to a video. Kenzie grinned hugely at her.

"That's a great idea!" she exclaimed. Kat opened another tab and logged into her Facebook account. She then quickly wrote out a post telling people that the video was about her upcoming performance in the festival with her two friends and asking people to check it out. The post had been up for less than a minute when one of Kat's friends, a girl named Stephanie, replied.

"Here, I'll read what she said," Kat said. They'd sprawled out around the room again, and Mackenzie and Olivia had been about to resume discussion about parts in songs. They had shut up immediately when Kat had said there was already a reply.

"Okay, she said; 'Hey this looks really cool! I'm gonna post a link on my page! You should totally post a link on the Team Starkid page!'" Kat looked up at them. "You guys think it's a good idea?"

"Definitely!" Olivia exclaimed. "Way more Starkid fans are gonna see it there then on YouTube, or even on your page Kat." Kenzie was nodding absently from her bed, where she was engrossed in looking at the list of songs. Kat nodded and turned back to the computer, where she quickly went to the Team Starkid page on Facebook. She wrote out a post with pretty much the same message as the one on her page, and attached the video before posting it. With that done, she logged out of Facebook and YouTube and rejoined the musical discussion.

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

Almost an hour later, and several thousand miles away, Brian Holden was checking the Starkid Facebook page. He was unofficially in charge of it, and was always looking for new questions and suggestions from fans. He had just settled down on the sofa and grabbed his iPhone, opening up the Facebook app. He logged out of his own and logged in again as Starkid. He scrolled quickly through the new posts. There were a bunch of fan pictures, and several posts about the upcoming Apocalyptour. He was about to scroll back to the top and log out when something caught his eye. He scrolled down a little more and saw a video. Curious, he clicked on it and watched as three blonde girls explained that they were going to be singing Starkid music at their town festival. They looked ridiculously excited and he couldn't help but chuckle when the one in the middle accidentally slapped the one to her left in the face. When the video was done, he sat for a minute, thoughtfully tapping his fingers on the side of the phone. He was so lost in thought that he didn't notice when someone entered until they spoke.

"What's on your mind? You look like you're trying to solve world peace or something." His head snapped up at the sound of Joe Walker's amused voice. The other man was leaning against the doorframe, an amused expression playing on his face.

"How long have you been standing there?" Brian asked. Joe shrugged.

"A minute or two. You were staring really intently at the wall. I was waiting for something exciting to happen," he admitted. "But nothing did. I'm severely disappointed now." Brian rolled his eyes, and a thoughtful look crossed his face.

"Joe, you wouldn't happen to know which day we're in Boston for Apocalyptour, would you?" Walker looked puzzled, but pulled out his phone and checked the calendar.

"According to what I have, June 9th, a Saturday. We're performing in Silver Spring on the 7th, and then we have the whole next day to get to Massachusetts, even though I think it only takes like 8 hours. So we basically have a day off," Joe explained to his friend. A grin was spreading across Brian's face as he concocted a plan.

"Joe, I think I know what we should do that Friday night."

"Do I want to know?" Brian looked directly at him, still grinning.

"We're going to go scare the shit out of some fans." Walker raised a questioning eyebrow, but came into the room and sat in a chair across from Brian.

"Explain," he instructed his friend. Brian was more than happy to.

"Well, I found this video on the Starkid Facebook page…"

An hour later, their plan was complete. These three girls were in for the surprise of their lives.

* * *

**AN: Yeah, it's done! So that was pretty fun to write. I hope you guys liked it! And I'd really appreciate it if you let me know what you think in a review because I don't think I have very many at this point. I don't even know if I have any at all. Please review! And OMDWG, did anyone hear! AVPT is happening! Ahhhhhhhh! If you're as excited as I am, feel free to PM me so we can flip out about it, or leave a review/comment about it so everyone can flip out together! Yay! Okay, hopefully I'll have a new chapter soon! Hugs to all reviewers!**


	3. Chapter 3

AN: Well, I think I can safely say that this story is my new obsession. I've been working on it almost non-stop for several days now. I'm having soooo much fun! So, I'd like to thank Prongsthemarauder15 and Pigwidgeon for reviewing! And Pigwidgeon; your logic with the ages is pretty much the same as mine. My betas agree. The closer we can get them to our ages, the happier we are. XD This chapter will feature the appearance of the infamous Ben, as well as rehearsal! The Starkids might make a surprise appearance at the end, with Brolden and Walker getting some others in on their evil plan… You'll have to read to find out!

**Disclaimer: Yeah, just look at chapter 1. I'm way too lazy to write out the entire thing for every chapter.**

Chapter 3: Rehearsal and Recruitment

The next month and a half flew by for the Marauders. Some relatively important things happened, such as prom, senior night out, and graduation, but those are completely irrelevant to the story. Besides, the three girls were much more excited about their upcoming performance than any school dance. They rehearsed three afternoons a week until after graduation. Then the schedule changed; 10 to 3 on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday and from 8 to 1 on Saturday. The Saturday rehearsals were the most fun, they agreed, simply because they were half asleep for the first half of rehearsal.

Many ideas were suggested and shot down during this time. They were going to wear signs to indicate which characters they were singing for, just as they'd joked about the first day they'd gotten permission to sing. That idea was crushed by Olivia, who pointed out that it would be nearly impossible because they'd have to change signs after every song, but each of them only came offstage between one and three times during the whole thing. Kat had suggested some sort of digital display screen that could be altered from backstage while they remained out there singing, but they quickly realized that would cost way too much money. They tried designing a backdrop of sorts, but soon came to the conclusion that it would be impossible because trying to combine the backdrops for AVPM, AVPS, Starship, and Holy Musical Batman just created a really weird looking collage. It was Mackenzie who came up with the idea of putting a backdrop of planets and flickering lights to be stars. Admittedly, it was a lot like the SPACE Tour setup, but they came up with the idea on their own – they hadn't gone to the SPACE Tour. However, it was the only thing they could think of, so that's what they went with.

Today was the beginning of their hell week – in other words, it was Saturday and their show was in six days. Panic was beginning to set in, mostly because they'd never performed in front of any sort of crowd before. Kat was dealing the best, as she didn't care what people thought of her or how people saw her. She was also the best at getting into a rhythm of sorts while singing and forgetting about the people she was singing too. It helped that she'd done several drama productions, including one musical.

Olivia was the worst by far. They still had six days to prepare and she practically threw up every time someone mentioned the show anywhere other than rehearsal. She appeared fine in public, but once she was behind closed doors anyone who didn't know what was going on would have thought that she was mentally unstable. She hadn't hyperventilated yet, but had come close on several occasions. She was pretty much working herself into the ground perfecting each song, both the music and the dances. She kept making tiny tweaks to the timing of each song, so small that neither Kat nor Mackenzie could notice them. But they realized that she needed something to keep her busy, so they left her alone. She had all the songs arranged except two; Ranger Danger and her solo, Status Quo. She was far more concerned with Ranger Danger, seeing as she could pretty much fake her way through the solo if she really needed to. It would be significantly more difficult for herself and Mackenzie to fake a duet, especially the part at the end where they sang their individual verses at the same time. It was confusing enough when they were singing the actual lyrics in Granger Danger, but it was now fifty times as confusing because they had to change the lyrics. She was almost always the first one at the Saturday rehearsals, and usually the last one to leave.

So, true to form, Olivia got to the school gym, which was where they rehearsed on Saturdays, at 7:45 in the morning. She was partially asleep and almost dropped her keyboard about five times walking into the gym and actually did drop her guitar case. Then half her sheet music nearly blew across the parking lot, but she managed to save it, which she thanked dead wizard God for. When she finally made it into the gym, she almost collapsed in relief and exhaustion. She'd been up late the night before trying to figure out lyrics for Ranger Danger. She slumped down on the floor, resting her head on the concrete wall behind her. It wasn't comfortable at all, but she really didn't care. Even when she heard the door open again her eyes remained shut. Until she smelled food. Then her eyes popped open and she saw a grinning Ben jumping away as she impulsively snatched at the air where she was sure he'd been dangling food a moment before.

"Good morning sunshine," he said cheekily. She made a noise somewhere between a growl, a snarl, and a groan.

"You sound like a dying animal," he informed her bluntly, brown eyes sparkling as he stood before her. "Come on, get up off the floor."

"I gotta get up, gotta get back, get back up," she grumbled under her breath. He looked puzzled, but she didn't particularly care. She grabbed the hand he offered her and pulled herself up. She immediately felt tiny; not that she was short at 5 foot 6, but he was huge at 6 foot 1. She took a step away from him, tucking her blonde hair behind her ear. She'd neglected to pull her curly hair back that morning, and it was starting to get on her nerves. He reached out and tugged a lock of her hair, a grin forming on his face.

"You don't usually have your hair down," he commented. She knocked his hand away.

"That's right, and it's because I don't want you playing with it!" He laughed at that, and Olivia realized just how close they were standing when she felt his breath skim her forehead. She took a couple of steps back on an impulse. He looked at her, seemingly confused. He opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the door opening with a bang behind him.

"DO YOU REMEMBER THAT TIME!" Kat's shout-singing echoed through the gym and Olivia rolled her eyes.

"I know you're madly in love with Joe Walker, Kat, but that doesn't give you the right to shout his songs at the top of your lungs at 8 in the morning. On Saturday. When some people still aren't quite awake."

"Of course it does," she scoffed. "WHEN YOU WOULDN'T – hey is that coffee?" Olivia pressed her face into her hands.

"Kat, you have the attention span of a SQUIRREL!"

"Well, I didn't want anyone dangerous, soooo, I went with the squirrel!" Mackenzie's obnoxiously cheerful voice echoed through the gym as she slipped in through the door that hadn't quite closed after Kat. Olivia groaned as both Ben and Kat laughed.

"Why is everyone awake except me?" she asked in a pitiful voice. Kenzie slung a long arm around her shoulders, once again making Olivia feel tiny. Mackenzie was taller than her too, standing at 5 foot 10. Kat was tall as well, at 5 foot 10 as well, making Olivia the shortest person there.

"Well you see my dear Moony," Mackenzie began. "It's this thing with tall people. We're all very awake in the morning, unlike you short people, who don't wake up properly until about 10 AM." Olivia shoved her friend away as Ben and Kat cracked up.

"I am surrounded by laughing idiots," she muttered, which made them all laugh harder. She went over to where she'd unceremoniously dumped her sheet music in a small mountain of paper. She knelt down beside the papers and reached over to start organizing.

"No, wait, don't start yet!" Ben's voice cut through the laughter that had been echoing behind her. She turned to face him, standing in the same motion.

"What?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Well, the first thing is that I did bring you coffee, if you want it." Kenzie and Kat immediately dove for the coffee, while Olivia stayed where she was. She wasn't falling for it, not to mention that she didn't like coffee.

"And I brought Munchkins," he said in a pleading voice. She sighed and went over and ate a Munchkin. One Munchkin, no more. Ben rolled his eyes, but didn't question it.

"The second thing… well, I was wondering if I could film your rehearsal today." All three girls looked at him in surprise. "Well, your announcement video was so popular, I figured that you might as well give all the people who are excited about this performance an update as to how it's going."

"Our other video is popular?" Kat asked blankly. Ben nodded.

"Yeah, it's got several thousand views," he told them. The girls looked at each other, shocked. "And there's a ton of comments on there saying how people are really excited for the show and thanking you for doing it."

"Wow," Olivia said in amazement. "I didn't realize people were that excited. If I'd known that, I would've posted a thank-you video a long time ago."

"Well, I think a backstage video would be a fantastic thank-you present of sorts!" Mackenzie exclaimed. "I'm okay with you filming Ben."

"I'm cool with it too," Kat said from where she was dumping sugar in her coffee. Olivia rolled her eyes as Ben looked at her hopefully.

"There was no need to bring food for me to agree to this plan," she told him. A wide grin split his face.

"Fantastic! I just have to get my camera from my car," Ben said brightly. He practically skipped out the door. Olivia watched with a raised eyebrow, before turning back to her friends, shaking her heard slightly as she did so. When she looked up at her friends, both of them were wearing identical expressions of amusement mixed with something that looked like smugness.

"What?" she asked, puzzled.

"If that wasn't you flirting with him, then I have no idea what you were doing," Kat said bluntly. Olivia rolled her eyes.

"That was not flirting. I don't flirt. You know that Kat," Olivia said, rolling her eyes.

"Well, that sure looked like flirting to me," Kat said, and Kenzie nodded her agreement.

"You guys are being stupid," Olivia said as she ate another Munchkin. Just then, Ben reappeared, which successfully ended the conversation. They ate some more Munchkins and Kat and Mackenzie drank coffee, so it was 8:30 before they got started.

"So I'm just gonna walk around with the camera," Ben explained. "Just pretend I'm not there." The girls nodded and he started up the camera. They could hear him explaining where he was, but they ignored him, just as he'd told them to. Olivia was desperate to work on Ranger Danger, so Mackenzie and Kitty agreed to work on their duet in the beginning of Hideous Creatures while she did so. Olivia practically flew over to her sheet music, guitar, and piano while the other two went over to the rectangle taped on the floor that represented the area the stage covered. If they stepped off the rectangle, they were essentially falling off the stage, unless they stepped where they'd marked there were stairs. Olivia heard the music start and successfully ignored it as she heard Mackenzie's voice ring out. She knew Ben wasn't filming her now so she spread her music out all around her, cradling the guitar in her lap. She strummed the chords and sang the lines softly to herself. She was good until she came to the first spot where there needed to be changes; where Ron is supposed to sing "Strange how a dress can take a mess and make her nothing less than beautiful to me!" She had no idea what to put there. She had considered 'Strangely dressed, and he's a mess and yet he's nothing less than beautiful to me!' but that didn't quite sound right. She found her thoughts drifting to Ron himself, a.k.a. Joey Richter. For whatever reason, she thought about the videos she'd seen of the SPACE Tour and how he was constantly wearing that vest. A tiny grin pulled at the edges of her mouth as she thought about she and her two crazy friends had flipped out about how cute he was in that vest; and then she knew the perfect lines. She grabbed her pencil and viciously erased the lines that were already written there. She was so absorbed in scrawling down the words that she didn't notice Ben approaching until he spoke.

"Hey there Moony!" Ben's cheerful voice startled her out of her musical trance. She jumped about a foot in the air, almost threw her guitar across the room, and scattered her music everywhere. Oh, and threw the pencil at the camera. Ben leapt out of the way as the pencil flew by, giving her an alarmed and slightly offended look.

"What was that for?" he exclaimed.

"You scared me," Olivia said innocently as she put her guitar down and started gathering her sheet music. "I was in the middle of writing some lyrics."

"Why were you writing lyrics? Didn't the Starkids already write the songs?"

"Well, yes, but for this particular song I needed to change a few things." She alternated collecting sheet music and looking into the camera as she spoke. "The original is called Granger Danger, and it's Ron and Draco singing a duet about Hermione Granger. Obviously, none of the three of us are guys, so I've been changing some lyrics around so it can now be two girls singing about a guy." Ben nodded behind the camera, probably to tell her she did a good job with the explanation. She hoped.

"Do the new lyrics allow the song to have a new name?" She laughed.

"Well, not officially, but the three of us have been calling it Ranger Danger because I changed the chorus to 'I'm falling in love, falling in love, falling in love with a Starship Ranger.' But I don't think that gives it the right to be a new song." Ben nodded thoughtfully.

"Can I hear it?"

"Not with that camera running."

"Why not?" Ben almost whined. She raised an eyebrow at his tone.

"Because the new lyrics are meant to be a surprise. And whining is for children Ben. You should know better," she teased. He stuck his tongue out at her, which made her laugh.

"Now they're gonna be confused because you're laughing for no apparent reason." The smile fell off her face scarily fast and she looked directly into the camera.

"It's his fault. He stuck his tongue out at me. I am not crazy." And then she calmly turned back to her music, leaving a very puzzled Ben.

The rest of the rehearsal passed in much this way. In fact, they all had so much fun that the girls asked Ben to come to all of their remaining rehearsals, if he was willing. They had Monday and Wednesday, which were normal rehearsals in someone's backyard, and Thursday was their dress rehearsal on the actual stage. Then on Friday they had a sound check and all sorts of fun prep stuff that they didn't want to do. But they were excited, and wouldn't have had it any other way.

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

Five days later it was time for dress rehearsal. They'd spent the last half hour of rehearsal the day before figuring out costumes, which had been much harder then they'd expected. They'd finally gotten it down – well, Kat and Kenzie had done most of the work while giving Olivia constructive criticism on her solo, which she had been frantically practicing at the last two rehearsals. She was nervous about performing it here, but was far more nervous that the sound would be different and throw them all off.

Her fears weren't far off. As soon as they got there, things were different. People were scurrying here there and everywhere, trying to get things ready for all the performances scheduled for the weekend. Then they found out they had to wear things that hooked around their ear for the microphones, seeing as they'd asked for ones that they didn't have to hold. It was easier to choreograph that way, as they didn't have to worry about having something in one hand while they were trying to sing and dance at the same time. Then there was quite literally forty-five minutes of sound check. First they stood to close to the speakers with the mics on and almost blasted their ears off. Then the mics didn't work. Then the speakers didn't work. Then the speakers only projected obscenely loud; then they only projected extremely softly.

Finally, after a long and painful hour and fifteen minutes, the girls were allowed to sing. But not with microphones on, seeing as they didn't want to give anyone in the park a sneak peak at their performance. It went smoothly; right up until Kat held the 'welcome' too long in Goin' Back to Hogwarts. After that, things went well until Status Quo, when Olivia almost jumped off the stage by accident. Then, in Hideous Creatures, Kat accidentally slapped Mackenzie. Then, while performing the Stutter dance (which they had learned by watching video from the SPACE Tour over and over and over again) they all collided and fell in a big, giggling heap. Smooth sailing for the next five songs, until Gettin' Along; in the middle of that dance, as Mackenzie lead Olivia across the stage they tripped over a wire that someone hadn't moved. In Super Friends, both Kat and Kenzie broke down in hysterics as Olivia did the little dance move at 'I wanna be a modern dancer,' even though Olivia herself kept a perfectly straight face. Then, while doing the dancing at the part where Batman is singing 'Finally, I've found a friend, I've finally found a friend,' Mackenzie punched Kat in the back of the head by accident. And, at the end of Super Friends, Olivia fell off the stage. They thought she dislocated her shoulder, but it was fine. At least, that's what the paramedic said.

But the last song, Days of Summer, went perfectly!

At the end of Days of Summer, they got quite a bit of applause – they were pretty sure most of it was because they'd had a noticeably flawless song. As they left the stage, Mackenzie turned to her friends.

"I think that went well," she said cheerfully. The other two agreed, although Olivia was clearly trying to keep her mind off her impending performance. Noticing this, Kat quickly distracted her by getting her involved in a discussion about Avatar: Legend of Kora, which was one of their favorite shows. Ben, who had been filming the rehearsal, came up and asked them some questions, as an interview of sorts. They only took about three questions seriously, which seemed to frustrate him a little, but the three girls were having a fantastic time.

But all good things must end, and the girls had to part at the official end of rehearsal, so they could go home and sleep. As they said their goodbyes by their cars, Olivia could see the panic in the other girls' eyes that she was sure was rooted in her own.

"Well, good rehearsal," Olivia offered. There were nods all around. Then Mackenzie suddenly threw her arms around them.

"Guys, whatever happens on that stage tomorrow," she said quietly, so only they could hear it. "We're best friends, no matter what. Okay? I will love you guys as the sisters I never had, even if we go out there and fuck up the entire show. But we won't because we are the totally awesome and supermegafoxyawesomehot Marauders!" She almost shouted the last seven words, which earned them some odd looks from people nearby. The other two laughed and voiced agreement. Olivia pulled back and put her hand in the middle. Two hands were almost immediately placed on top of hers.

"Marauders forever guys. Best friends. Always." Olivia's voice was relatively soft, but the other two heard her perfectly, and they all managed to grip each other's hands. They stayed like that for a minute, quietly taking comfort in the presence of their best friends and would-be sisters. Olivia felt more at home in that moment than she had many times at her own house. She knew that no matter what happened tomorrow, her friends would be there for her, just as she'd be there for them.

Always.

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away and later that very same night, Brian Holden and Joe Walker were trying to recruit some of their friends for their not-so-evil plan that was to take place the following day. It was after their Silver Spring show, and everyone was running around packing stuff up so they could get to Boston early the next day and hopefully have some free time. Brian and Joe were helping too, of course, but they had already picked out whom they wanted to bring with them.

Brian was the first to act, upon noticing Meredith struggling with some of the equipment. He bounded over and took some of the stuff out of her arms, which earned him a grateful smile. They brought the stuff out to one of the buses and left it there to be loaded by people who had a better idea of what they were doing.

"Thanks Brian," Meredith said cheerfully, though she sounded a bit tired. "I was pretty much drowning under all that stuff!" Brian laughed with her as they walked back towards the theater.

"No problem! Hey, I was wondering if you wanted to help Walker and I with something. Interested?"

"Brian, I am not helping you and Joe prank someone. It's not happening." Brian laughed again.

"Your lack of faith wounds me Mer! But seriously, it's not a prank." And proceeded to explain the plan to her.

While Brian was occupied with Meredith, Joe was getting two more helpers - Dylan and Joey. The other two guys were chatting with some fans when Joe found them. He was dragged into the midst of the fans and found himself signing multiple autographs and answering several questions. The questions ranged from 'What's your favorite color?' to 'Will you marry me?' In response to impromptu proposals, he politely explained that he would say yes, but it would probably cause fighting, which would make him unhappy. The fans seemed satisfied with his answer, and the three singers managed to extract themselves from the crowd by claiming they needed to go help pack stuff up, which was true.

"Well that was fun," Joey said brightly.

"And exhausting," muttered the ever-practical and realistic Dylan. Joey nudged him with his shoulder.

"C'mon Dyl, you know you had fun out there!" Walker and Joey both laughed at the look on Dylan's face – somewhere between disbelief and annoyance, mixed with a little bit of amusement.

"Sure I did," Dylan said, shaking his head. The other two laughed again as the picked up some stuff and carried it out to one of the buses.

"So what's up Walker?" Joey asked casually.

"Well, I think I was proposed to about twelve times and signed about four hundred autographs," Joe said dryly. Dylan and Joey laughed and voiced agreement, only with more ridiculous numbers that everyone knew were exaggerations.

"Actually, I wanted to ask you guys something," Joe said.

"Sure man, what's up?" Dylan said as they went back into the building for some more stuff. Joe began explaining his plan to them.

"That's a surprisingly well thought-out plan, considering it was you and Brolden who came up with it," Joey teased. Joe swung a lazy and playful punch at his friend's arm, which Joey dodged with ease.

"Don't judge us," Joe said. "We spent all of an hour thinking of that."

"Wow, that's record time for you two," Dylan said in mock amazement. Joe glared.

"Don't make me bash your heads together. So, what do you say? You in?" The other two exchanged glances.

"I'm in," Joey said, excitement rippling in his voice.

"Me too," Dylan said. They high-fived each other, then continued to load the bus.

Brian was also having good luck. After getting Meredith to agree to come – which hadn't been hard at all; the girl loved hanging out with fans – he went to find the final member of the group he and Joe and created. He found her outside one of the buses, where she was signing something for a fan.

"Lauren," he called out to her. She looked up and waved before handing the fan back whatever she'd signed and jogging over.

"Hey Brian," she said cheerfully. "What goes on?"

"I wanted to ask you something," he explained. She nodded for him to continue. "Joe and I have a plan to surprise some fans in Massachusetts, and-"

"I'm in," Lauren interrupted. Brian blinked at her in surprise.

"I haven't even told you the plan yet."

"Yeah, but if you and Walker made it up, there's sure to be an element of ridiculousness and fun that I'm certain to enjoy. So I'm in." Brian grinned.

"Fantastic. Joe or I will find or text you tomorrow with the exact time and where we need to meet." Lauren nodded and the two went their separate ways. Brian smiled to himself as he went over to help load the last of the stuff into the bus.

Oh yes, this was shaping up to be the best plan he and Joe had ever created.

AN: Yay, it's almost performance time! I am finishing this at midnight… awesome. So, just so everyone's aware… next chapter will contain the performance, probably some screaming, as well as some sadness. :( But most of the chapter will be happy! Yay! There will also be some stuff that I'm completely making up, which should be fun. Oh, and I will be telling you the edited ages of all the Starkids, because I'm changing most of them. Okay. I think that's all. Stay tuned for another exciting installment of this story! Oh wait also, which song/dance sequences do you want written-because I can't write all 16… leave a review with which ones you want to see/read the most. Okay, that really is it! See you next chapter!


	4. Chapter 4

AN: Wow, the response to the last chapter was fantastic! Everyone is being so supportive and totally awesome! Both my beta and a reviewer have asked for a description of the girls, so I'm going to put that here because I can't figure out how to put it in the story. :)

**Olivia: 5 foot 6 inches tall. Very pale skin and can't tan at all. No matter how long she's in the sun, she looks like a ghost. Very curly golden blonde hair that usually pulled back in a bun, ponytail, or braid. Her eyes are bright, intense blue that vary from a stormy color to a cheerful sky-like color, depending on her mood.**

**Kat: 5 foot 10 inches tall. Relatively tan, but still on the paler side. Her hair is lighter than Olivia's, and shorter, but equally thick. Hers is down much more often, and not nearly as curly. Her eyes are green with yellow flecks around her pupil.**

**Mackenzie: 5 foot 10 inches tall. Very tan; her skin is pretty bronzed, but nothing to crazy. Her hair is the lightest and very long and wavy. You have a 50-50 chance of seeing it down or up. Her eyes are blue-gray, and she wears round glasses.**

**So there's the girls! I only noticed how much longer Olivia's is when I looked back… Oh well! So, the other important thing in this author's note is the ages of all the Starkids! Yay! So I kind of have an idea of how old they are in reality, but not really, so this is mostly made up. **

**Walker, Darren, Lauren, Nick Lang, Brolden, Dylan - 25**

**Jamie, Meredith, Julia, Jim, Moses – 24**

**Joey, AJ, Brosenthal - 23**

**So there's that! There will probably be some other Starkids mentioned at some point, and I'll put a little author's note in that chapter telling you their age.**

**I just have one more little thing I would like to say… a shout out to some reviewers!**

**Pigwidgeon: I'm so glad you like my character! Actually, it's kind of funny because Olivia is based off of me! I'm also not the age that Olivia is in the story, but I changed it for the story to make more sense. And if the Pigfarts Club is a real thing, I will gladly join. :)**

**Azebra117: I'm glad I unintentionally included your favorite Starkids! And I'm also glad that you like my story! And yes, it is only the reprise. Much as I love the song, it is pretty long, and I'd have to cut another one if I wanted to do the whole thing, which I don't want to do. And my friend, whom Kat is based off of, is slightly in love with Brolden, so I had to put it in there. For her.**

**Mimi: Haha, I don't think you're a creepy stalker! No, I don't live in Concord, but I do live in Massachusetts, so I was trying to find a semi-suburban town that was close enough to Boston for it to be logical that the Starkids could pop over to see the performance. It was originally going to be Cambridge, but I liked Concord better, after some thought.**

**PenMagic: Thanks! And I just realized as I was writing this that I forgot to mention which Marauders they are, so it's actually supposed to be cleared up in this chapter. If it's still not clear at the end of this chapter, feel free to PM me and I'll let you know! Also, Ben isn't supposed to be a Marauder. He's not that Harry Potter or Starkid crazy, so he's not really included as a Marauder. He'd be like one of the other friends that the Marauders in Harry Potter had who was their friend, but wasn't really a Marauder.**

**Okay, now that that's done… on with the story!**

Chapter 4: A Performance and a Surprise/Fangirl Session

Olivia was officially panicking. It was the day of the show, which meant that she had to sing in front of lots of people. Which scared her. A lot. Her severe stage fright had officially kicked in, and there was still 11 hours until the show. She felt bad because she was pretty sure that her panicky attitude was rubbing off on everyone around her, but she really couldn't help it.

The park was bustling with techies and performers who were going to be there throughout the day. Final sound checks were underway for the first show, and Olivia was attempting to get as far away from the stage as possible. Right now she was hiding in a tree on the opposite end of the park, trying to avoid having a panic attack and falling out of said tree.

The occasional person would pass under her tree, and she would watch them until they disappeared from sight, trying to guess anything she could about them. It was fun to imagine crazy stories about them.

For example, there was a businessman with glasses who walked rapidly by, chattering away on his phone. She immediately thought of Clark Kent, and that guy became Superman in disguise, on his way to save Gotham from the evil villain Sweet Tooth. Then there was a woman in jogging clothes, so she imagined that lady was an Olympic marathon runner, training for the London games. Even though the lady was really slow and obviously just someone trying to work out. Or something.

This game amused her for a while, but then two people appeared under her tree that she didn't need to imagine anything about.

"Ho there tree-dweller!" Mackenzie called out. "How goes things up in your leafy home?"

"Ho there land-dweller!" Olivia yelled back in return. "My leafy home is most comfortable, and offers excellent scenery. How goes things in the lands below?"

"Well, it's funny," Kat said, breaking the semi-Shakespearean streak they'd been on. "We have this show that we're doing later, and we seem to have lost the third member in our trio of Marauders. You wouldn't happen to have seen a Messr Moony, have you?" Olivia tapped her chin in fake thought.

"You know, I think I might have. Who would be looking for her?"

"Us!" Mackenzie exclaimed, throwing her arms out and narrowly missing Kat.

"Again with the arms!" Kat yelled, which made all three of them laugh. "And a certain somebody whose name begins with a "B" who just happened to bring more coffee, or in Messr Moony's case, a mocha coolatta…" Olivia bounded down from the tree.

"Whoa guys, you won't believe what just happened!"

"What was it?" Mackenzie asked, acting like she knew nothing about what had just happened.

"Well, I was kidnapped by my evil twin, who lives in a tree! And she kept me chained to the tree until you guys came, and then she was scared you would call the police, so she let me out! Isn't that crazy?" Her friends nodded, feigning shock. They walked back to the 'backstage' area for performers only. It wasn't a real backstage area because they were in a public park, but it worked. It was roped off so only performers could enter, unless someone had a good reason. For example, parents were allowed because a lot of the performers were high schoolers and college kids. Each act got their own little tenty thing for them to chill out in until their show, which was where the Marauders headed now. They'd managed to get a purple tent, the only one in the whole area. Almost all the other tents were navy blue, black, or gray. So if you were looking at it from above, there would be a small sea of dull tents, and a single tent in Starkid purple (**AN: Starkid purple is the color of their Converse from SPACE Tour. I didn't have another name for it.)**. They were pretty pleased with this.

Kat got there first and pushed through the tent flaps, followed closely by Mackenzie and Olivia. Just as Kat had said, Ben was sitting in there, drinking coffee. There were two coffees and one coolatta on the fold-up table that they'd put in there, along with some plastic chairs. Olivia picked up the coolatta and took a huge sip.

"Good morning to you too," Ben said, amused. She looked at him.

"Sorry, I was really thirsty. Apparently, sitting in a tree for forty-five minutes makes you really dehydrated. Good morning!" He shook his head, laughing. After a moment, the girls joined in.

That was pretty much how they spent the day. They went to Panera Bread for lunch and played a bunch of card and board games to keep their mind off of the impending show. They tried playing Monopoly, but once they got into the fourth hour, they just gave up and played Uno instead. Once they got bored of Uno, they pulled out Boggle and played that for a relatively long time. At that point it was two hours before they show and they kicked Ben out so they could get ready.

Getting ready was an adventure all in itself. They were relatively unused to performing, so it had taken a while for them to come up with logical costumes and hairstyles. Luckily the hairdos were pretty simple, and the outfits were pretty easy to get on.

Kat was wearing purple skinny jeans, a silver jacket with a black tank top underneath, and white Converse high-tops. Mackenzie was wearing sky blue, high waisted shorts, a white tank top, a black jacket, and bright blue high-tops. Olivia was wearing jean shorts with a blue belt, a dark green tank top, a white vest with a hood, and purple high-tops. Their Converse were personalized with their Marauder name on the outside and the word 'Marauders' on the inside of the foot. Each of them had Wayfarers that they had spray-painted to be their house colors. Mackenzie's were gold on one half and red on the other, Kat's were green and silver, and Olivia's were blue and bronze. Olivia was also wearing silver fingerless gloves, Mackenzie was wearing a red bandanna, and Kat had a bat symbol necklace. Mackenzie had wanted to wear a blonde wig in honor of Draco, but then remembered that she was blonde. So she'd ended up with a small braid going back into a ponytail. Kat had Dutch braided Olivia's hair straight down the back of her head. Kat's hair was French braided down the back of her head. They each wore some subtle makeup, but no more than needed. The clothes were comfortable, which they'd planned on purpose, seeing as they were going to be doing a lot of dancing.

Their only issue now was fear. Olivia was starting to freak out and was desperately attempting to distract herself. First, she immersed herself helping her friends and herself get ready. But once that was done, there was nothing for her to do, other than sit around and try to avoid psyching herself out. That was nearly impossible. She was extremely shy, for the most part, and her stage fright was kicking in full force. She was sitting in one of the plastic chairs they'd put in their tent with her elbows resting on her knees, hands clasped in front of her. Her head was bowed and she was focusing on keeping her breathing even. She was aware of her friends moving around the tent around her, doing last minute preparations for the show. Olivia didn't move a muscle until a hand fell on her shoulder. She looked up and saw Mackenzie standing over her.

"Warm-ups," her friend croaked. All of them were feeling intense nerves now, but they did their best to push it aside and go through their vocal warm-ups. Just as they finished, they heard footsteps outside.

"Um, excuse me, but are the Marauders in there?" The voice was very hesitant and sounding female. They looked at each other and nodded. Kat grabbed three water bottles as Olivia called out an answer.

"Yes, we're in here. Please, come in." The purple flap was pushed back and a young woman entered. She was of medium height, with blonde hair and blue eyes. Olivia had never met her before, but offered a friendly smile that was tentatively returned.

"Hi, I'm Madison," she said. "I was sent to tell you that you're on in ten minutes." The girls nodded and Madison left briskly. They looked at each other with a kind of grim determination on their faces and silently filed out of the tent. The walk to the stage was the longest of Olivia's life. She thought of running away with each step she took closer to the stage, but forced herself to continue onwards. Her friends needed her, and she needed to do this, or she'd never overcome her stage fright. She needed to go up there and face her fear, which she was determined to do.

When they finally reached the area off to the side and slightly behind the stage, where they were to wait before they went on, and where they would stand when they went offstage. Not that any of them would ever be offstage long, but it did happen a few times. Mr. Hantlin was there, along with his coworkers, most of whom the girls had met already. The coworkers nodded politely to them, and Mr. Hantlin even offered a smile, but the girls could only manage tense nods in return. Olivia tried to smile, but quickly became aware that it was coming out as a grimace and let all expression fall off her face again. Mackenzie turned to her and Kat when a techie came up and said they were on in three.

"Okay guys, I know that we're all terrified out of our minds, but we can do this. Okay? The Starkids get up in front of people and do ridiculous shit for a living. I think we can manage one show, yeah?" She finished with a half-smile that made the other two smile as well.

"Let's go guys," Olivia said, managing to sound confident. "We got this."

"And remember," Kat added. "If you feel like you can't do it, pretend you're the character who sings the song. I might not be able to sing The Way I Do to Olivia, but Mega-girl can definitely sing it to Tootsie. Understood?" Mackenzie and Olivia nodded in understanding. A moment later, Madison came up.

"You guys are on in one minute. Follow me please." They followed her to the stairs by the side of the stage. The area right around them on the stage was always behind the lights, so you couldn't tell if anyone was standing there. At the moment, all the lights were off, although Olivia was pretty sure she could make out a techie putting out the stool they'd requested for Mackenzie to sit on for the beginning of Goin' Back to Hogwarts. Madison led Kenzie out onto the stage and had her sit on the stool and made sure her mic was attached to her face correctly. Then the techie bounded back over to the other two Marauders and checked their microphones. After finding everything was in order, she left, whispering a 'good luck' to the girls as she hurried away.

A moment later, there was a slight crackle over the speakers, and Olivia knew that the mics had been turned on. Then, the first notes of Goin' Back to Hogwarts rang through the air. Olivia was prepared for the volume of the music; they'd practiced with the music this loud while indoors, so it actually seemed relatively quiet. She was prepared for the fact that she couldn't say a word once the mic was on.

She was not prepared for the roar that the crowd that was apparently out there let out upon hearing the music. The three of them had known that this was the song that people were most likely to know, seeing as it was the opener to the most famous Starkid show. But she didn't realize that so many Starkid fans would turn out to listen to them. She felt a confident smile growing on her face as Kenzie sang her heart out on the stage. Kat joined her in what seemed like seconds, and then it was her cue.

Olivia bounded out onto the stage without a thought about the crowd, singing powerfully about O.W.L.s. Her confidence was back for no apparent reason.

The first song went perfectly. Olivia had to admit, she was relieved that it went so well. She was well aware that if the first song had gone badly, the rest of show probably wouldn't have gone well either. As they finished the song, Kenzie moved to the front of the stage. She began a mini-monologue as the other two subtly left the stage.

"Wow, thank you all so much for all that support!" she exclaimed as she shaded her eyes in an attempt to see the crowd. The crowd let out another cheer at her words, and she laughed.

"Dear dead wizard god, we were just hoping for twenty people, maybe! This is fantastic, you have no idea how excited we are!" Olivia and Kat listened from the bottom of the stairs, happiness bubbling inside both of them. This was fifty times better than they could've hoped.

Mackenzie nailed To Have a Home, her solo song. Then Kat went out there and made the crowd laugh with her sarcastic sense of humor. There were plenty of jokes about how everyone seemed to like Mackenzie more than her, even Olivia. That comment prompted Olivia to yell out 'That's a lie!' from backstage, which made everyone laugh even harder. Then she launched into The Coolest Girl, which was her solo song. The crowd seemed to approve, judging from all the cheering and singing along. Olivia bounded out, slapping a high-five with Kat has she came onto the stage, reminiscent of when they were on the volleyball team. She walked out to the stool and took a seat, grinning out at the crowd.

"Hey there everyone!" There were several calls of 'hello,' 'hi there,' and she was pretty sure that she heard 'hey there hottie' from at least one person.

"Well, at least I know that I can interact with you guys successfully," she said cheerfully, which earned her some laughter. "Well, I think I'm supposed to sing something while I'm out here, but I'm not too sure." That earned her a loud burst of laughter, which made her smile. "Yep, I'm trying some stand-up here, and I have no idea what I'm doing! Well, I'm going to stop with the attempted comedy and move on to some more serious stuff." She could hear the audience shifting, and backtracked a little.

"No, no I'm not going to go on a half-hour ramble about some random shit. Not gonna happen. I just want to talk a little about the song I'm going to sing before I actually sing it." She could almost hear the sigh of relief from the crowd.

"This particular song that I'm going to sing means quite a bit to me. It's been a favorite of mine since the first time I really listened to it, which wasn't actually the first time I heard it." She paused for a minute. "But I suppose that's neither here nor there. Anyway, the message behind the song – not that it's really hidden in the lyrics or anything – is something that I try to live by every day that I possibly can. So, I hope that you all like it as much as I do." There was a quick burst of applause after that, which made her smile a little. Then the first notes of Status Quo rang out.

There was a pretty general noise of excitement, somewhere between a cheer and a murmur. Olivia tucked a nonexistent piece of hair behind her ear as she started singing.

"It starts with not questioning the answers… and giving up before you've begun. It locks all the doors, increases the pressure and in a flash, your time is up before you've begun." At locks all the doors, she crossed her forearms in front of her, and at increases the pressure, she fake grabbed her head, as if there was some intense pressure getting to her. As she moved into the chorus, she stood up fluidly from the stool and walked slowly towards the front of the stage.

"So I say no-o-o to status quo-o-o. Who wants to be like the rest and deny the best that I'm meant for?" A questioning expression crossed her face here as she put up her hands, palms to the sky and shrugged.

"I will sho-o-ow the status quo-o-o. Who cares about normal? I'll never conform, I'll be content to resent the status quo." She looked down at her feet, as if retreating into shy, submissive behavior. But as the first note of the next verse rang out, she looked out at the crowd, a grin forming on her face.

"I kick down the walls around me, they don't know how strong I am!" Here, she put all her weight on her left foot and kicked out powerfully with her right, as if she was kicking the audience in the face. That earned her a cheer from the crowd.

"I'm not defined by boundaries, they could never understand… I'm so much more…" She held the more just as long as Joey did in the original song, which earned her some cheers.

"Than status quo-o-o. Who cares about being another pipe dreamer, stuck on the bottom floor?" She clasped her hands over her heart, crouching slightly to emphasize the fact that she was trying to convey honest emotion.

"And I kno-o-ow it's time to go-o-o! So maybe I've gotten everything that I wanted, but I think that I might have made it so when I said no, no, no to status quo!" She waved to the crowd, and moved as if to leave the stage. Then the music changed when she was about three-quarters of the way off and she whipped around.

"I am a Starship Ranger! I'm gonna do everything I can to always be a Starship Ranger!" She bounded back towards the front of the stage and held her arms out wide.

"It's everything." She belted out powerfully. "It's everything I am!" She held the last note slightly longer than it was originally written, but the vast amount of adrenaline that was pounding through her was making her feel slightly dangerous. There was cheer of approval from the listeners. She smiled and waved, then backed off as the first notes of Boy Toy rang out and the other two girls bounded out onstage.

Boy Toy was flawless, and as ridiculous as they wanted it to be. At the end, Olivia backed off into the darkness by the stairs. Kenzie turned to Kat, and seemed to notice her for the first time.

"Padfoot! I didn't even see you there!" She said brightly. Kat looked at her, and apparent shock flickered across her face. She turned to the audience.

"Can you understand what she's saying? Because I have no idea… it sounds like growling to me!" The audience roared, knowing which song was coming. Kenzie looked alarmed as well.

"You're not Padfoot! I can't understand a word you're saying! You're some sort of, of… hideous creature!" The notes of the guitar in the beginning exploded out of the speaker. Kenzie was up first, singing for the humans.

"What is this hideous creature? Disgusting, so gross! With such insidious features, what on Earth am I supposed to do? But scream bloody murder? This thing is odious! I better blow it up right now! Before someone gets hurt or it tries to eat me! I better blow it up with my firepower!" Kat leaped forward, singing right back at her.

"Who is this hideous creature? Invader, so cruel! Who knows what it could be here for, what does it expect me to do? But shout what the bug! It's so repulsive! I better wipe it out right now! Before it pushes its luck or someone falls, if something's gotta go, then this is its final hour!" Olivia suddenly ran out from the back of the stage and took a flying leap, landing perfectly between her friends. It had taken at least 400 tries for her to get the leap right, and she was immensely glad she didn't overshoot and fall off the stage. That probably would have put a damper in the evening.

She mock glared at her friends before launching into song. They looked at her, appearing startled by her appearance.

"What are these hideous creatures? Repugnant! Appalling! What is that sickening speech or all they all just growling? All I gotta say is HOLY CRAP!" They all yelled 'HOLY CRAP' together, and then Olivia continued on.

"They're loathsome, nasty animals! How dare they even start a brawl!" Kenzie leaned past Olivia to shout at Kat.

"Take a piece of this!"

"Take a piece of that!" Kat fired back. Olivia shoved them apart.

"You vile vicious cannibals!" She roared at them, which earned her two indignant looks. They suddenly turned to the audience in sync, now singing together.

"Let's crush this hateful curse, before they get us first! We must destroy them all! Destroy them all!" They held the all at the end for longer than needed, so they just covered the ten seconds where they were supposed to scream with the held note. They got a lot of applause for their fake fight. The audience was most delighted when Kat immediately broke out into Stutter.

Olivia and Kenzie acted as background dancers for the first verse and chorus while Kat sang. Then, Kenzie sang out the second verse and chorus, and Olivia took care of the final part/verse.

The best part was the audience's delight when they performed the actual dance from the SPACE Tour. Flawlessly. Lots of applause when they realized that it was the actual dance. From the stage, Olivia thought that there seemed to be a slightly louder group in the back, but the light didn't reach that far, so she couldn't have seen them, even if the lights weren't blinding her.

But at the moment, unnaturally loud groups weren't important to her. She needed to move the show along. So she turned to her friends, glaring at them and placing her hands on her hips.

"Okay, what's going on you two? You need to stop fighting!" Kat glared obstinately at her.

"And why should we?"

"Because I don't think the audience likes us very much to begin with, and you two are making it worse!" Olivia yelled, throwing her hands up in the air. There were immediate boos to that, as well as some cries of 'no' and 'you're wrong,' which Olivia thanked dead wizard God for. The joke wouldn't have worked if that hadn't happened. She threw an arm towards the audience, gesturing grandly.

"See, they're trying to boo us off the stage! You two aren't exactly helping!" Kenzie looked ashamed, but Kat looked devious.

"I know what we should do," Kat said with a smirk. Olivia raised an eyebrow.

"And what exactly would that be?" The first notes of the Kick it Up a Notch reprise rang out, which caused some stirrings of confusion among the crowd. The beginning was the same as Not Over Yet, so no one really knew what was going on, as these notes didn't come out in Not Over Yet until partway into the song.

"It's something I love very much," Kat said with a straight face. Olivia raised her other eyebrow. Kat sighed, then turned to the audience, a badass smirk on her face. She flipped her sunglasses down and about half the people understood what was going on and cheered.

"I love to kick it up a notch," she sang out. "'Cause I'm evil and bad to the bone!" Olivia exchanged a fake terrified glance with Mackenzie from where they were standing on either side of and behind Kat.

"Can I kick up a notch? Now that Junior is all grown up! And I'm havin' a blast blowin' shit up! I'll kill a million bugs; it's a thrill and a drug! So, call me a terrible guy!" She held her arms out, evil grin still in place.

"I love to kick it up a notch and watch all of you DIE!" She started manically cackling and Kenzie and Olivia ran up and 'dragged' her off the stage. They looked at each other and simultaneously wiped fake sweat off their foreheads. Then the first notes of Ranger Danger rang out across the stage. Olivia and Kenzie bounded up to the front, and a spotlight landed on Olivia.

"Here I am, face to face, with a situation I never thought I'd ever see. Strange how a vest can take a mess and make him nothing less than," she sang happily, a dreamy expression on her face.

"Beautiful to me! It seems like my eyes have been Transfigured, something deep inside has changed. They've been opened wide, but hold that trigger." She looked out at the audience in fake alarm.

"This could mean danger! I'm falling in love, falling in love, falling in love… I think I'm falling in love, falling in love, falling in love, with a Starship Ranger!" The roar of approval from the audience at the edited lyrics was shockingly loud. Olivia fake fell over at the noise, which caused many of the screams to change into laughter. Kenzie was chuckling too, but got her cue perfectly.

"What? What the hell is this? You expect me to sing about him? I don't care about him." She defiantly crossed her arms over her chest.

"There's no way, that's makeup, Kenzie wake up! I've been mistaken," she sang, looking rather sheepish now.

"He is the hottest guy I've ever seen now, because he's like a guy I've never seen! Don't know why I'd ever be so mean… this could mean danger! I'm falling in love, falling in love, falling in love." Here she cringed, as if it pained her to reveal this.

"I could be falling in love, falling in love, falling in love with a Starship Ranger!" Olivia and Kenzie bounded up to each other and stood shoulder to shoulder. Actually, it was more like shoulder to upper arm, seeing as Kenzie was noticeably taller.

"I wanna let him know I feel so queasy!" Kenzie sang.

"But I can't let it show, he'd laugh, poor Moony! C'mon Liv!"

"Prongsy," Mackenzie began as they looked at each other and resumed singing at the same time.

"You've gotta let it go! You've gotta let it go!" They leapt apart, and easily started singing their respective verses simultaneously. This had been the hardest part for them to learn, and Olivia was praying that neither of them would mess it up.

Luckily the rest of the song went perfectly, and they high-fived at the end, amidst applause. Kenzie gave a worried look in the direction of the stairs.

"Dead wizard god, I hope Padfoot doesn't try anything." Olivia rolled her eyes.

"Come on Prongs, you can't actually believe that she's evil, can you?" Kenzie shrugged.

"I didn't think I could until I watched her sing that song! She even admitted it!" Olivia shook her head.

"Whatever. Anyway, we need to do something to keep the crowd entertained. It has to be at least mediocre so they don't leave, because we already know that they hate us. We don't need to give them any more excuses to leave," Olivia explained seriously. Kenzie nodded with equal seriousness.

"Well, what do we do?"

"Let's play a game," Olivia suggested. "I'll ask you a question, and then you'll ask me a question, and so on and so forth." Mackenzie nodded.

"Sounds like fun!"

"Good," said Olivia. "I'll go first. What is your favorite marine creature?" Mackenzie thoughtfully tapped her chin.

"I dunno… dolphins are pretty cute, but I think I have to go with a seahorse horsie." The crowd laughed hysterically at the apparently serious answer.

"Good choice," Olivia said, as if that was actually a real thing. "Your turn!"

"Hmm… what do you want to be in life?" Olivia grinned.

"This is easy!" She turned to face the crowd, placing her hands firmly on her hips and looking up into the starry, cloudless sky.

"I wanna be a Starship Ranger!" Olivia sang the song with a bright, hopeful look on her face. Until Kat came flying out onto the stage, yelling out Roach's part, at which point she looked rather offended. They went back and forth, with Kenzie siding with no one but the bug group thing, which was really Kat's side.

After that, Olivia faked being angry with Kat, which brought them into Different as Can Be. Olivia stalked away from Kat after that and headed over to where Mackenzie was standing on the other side of the stage. They had a quick chat about Kat, where Mackenzie pointed out that she and Olivia weren't that different at all. That led to the Different as Can Be reprise, which became Gettin' Along between Kenzie and Olivia. After that, the three of them stood onstage, looking at each other for a very long minute. It actually looked like they were having a staring contest, and caused some giggles from the crowd. Kenzie abruptly spoke.

"Guys, I feel like we've gotten to know each other so much better since we started all this singing stuff. Like, I learned that coffee is the world's most effective motivator for Padfoot and I! Especially at eight in the morning!"

"And I learned that it's the altitude difference between those two and I that allows them to be very awake in the morning while I'm still half asleep," Olivia said cheerfully.

"And I learned that if you startle Moony, even in the slightest, she is very, very likely to throw whatever she has in her hands at the time at your face!" Kat said brightly. The laughter from the crowd was quite loud and cheerful at this point. The three of them nodded nostalgically.

"Good times," Olivia said slowly, with a sigh. "But I think we need to keep singing, or they're going to kick us off the stage." Her friends nodded and they looked around.

"So… does anyone remember what we're supposed to sing here?" Mackenzie asked after a minute.

"Well Prongs, I'm sure Moony's got this one," Kat said calmly. "Because even if she doesn't think she can, I know her better than she knows herself. And she is smart. Like, genius-smart. Like, computer smart – or, better yet, robot smart!" And with that, the beginning of The Way I Do rippled out of the speakers. Olivia sang Tootsie's part in a surprisingly deep voice, and Kat took Mega-girl's lines. Mackenzie sang for February, and Olivia sang Bug's lines. At the end, Kenzie and Kat kept their roles, and Olivia sang for Bug only. They got quite a bit of applause for that song. Apparently, people liked it.

There was no break between The Way I Do and Super Friends, the next song. Kat was particularly happy with this song because she got to sing Walker's part. Just as her friends had nearly collapsed from laughter at Olivia singing and dancing to Nick's lines, the crowd did the same thing. At the end of the song, they were all standing with their arms around each other, grinning like idiots. They got plenty of applause, which they were happy with. They'd spent hours learning the exact dance from the musical. Lots of time spent crammed in front of a computer screen. Things were finally quieting down, and Mackenzie started up the final speaking portion.

"Well, we've had a totally awesome time up here, singing and dancing for all you supermegafoxyawesomehot Starkid fans!"

"But we're nearing the end of our show here – we've only got one more song for you guys," Kat cut in sadly. There was a groan from her friends, as well as most of the members of the crowd.

"Yeah, we're sad about it too," Olivia said, wiping away a fake tear. "But it's okay, because we've got these days of summer to remind us of each other!"

"The time we have to spend apart will keep us in each other's hearts," Kat continued.

"I'm hoping that the good old days are something I will dream about at night," Olivia sang.

"Don't matter if it's sooner or later, I know that it's gonna be alright!" Kenzie finished. They grinned as they sang out together, the music finally starting. They'd opted to sing the first four lines a cappella.

"Don't wanna see you go, but it's not forever, not forever! And even if it was, you know that I would never let it get me down! You're the part of me that makes me better wherever I go! So I will try not to cry, but no one needs to say goodbye!" They broke out into random, semi-choreographed dancing that looked kind of good and kind of disorganized. There was plenty of clapping in time with the beat from the crowd as they danced.

"Don't wanna see you go, but it's not forever, not forever! And even if it was, you know that I would never let it get me down! You're the part of me that makes me better wherever I go! So I will try not to cry, but no one needs to say goodbye." They held the last note basically as long as they could. This was a rather long time, as they all had relatively large lungs and could hold quite a bit of air.

They all hugged each other at the end of the note, stunned by the thunderous applause. And the fact that they'd gotten through the show without anyone having a panic attack. Kat actually had tears in her eyes, which startled them a little. Kenzie already had a tear running down her cheek, as did Olivia. They turned to face the crowd and took a huge bow, holding hands the whole time.

"Thank you!" Kenzie yelled, waving with her free hand. They weren't really sure what to do when the applause continued, so they looked at each other, shrugged, and bowed again. Then they figured it was time to get off the stage, so they headed off on the steps as Mr. Hantlin and one of his coworkers came onstage. The girls were vaguely aware of someone taking the mics off their faces and many, many people telling them they did a good job, but they were just exhausted at this point. The adrenaline high that had kept them going while they were onstage was starting to wear off, and all they wanted to do was either go home and sleep or go find some food. They headed back to their tent, oblivious to everything going on around them. Once they got there, they practically collapsed in the chairs and just sat there for several minutes. After some, not-very-long period of time, they heard footsteps outside their tent. Madison's voice echoed strangely in their exhausted ears.

"Excuse me ladies, but there are some people here who are insisting they see you. Is it alright if they come in?" The Marauders exchanged glances and shrugged indifferently.

"Sure," Kenzie said tiredly.

They were completely unprepared when the people on the other side of the flap entered the tent.

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

A few hours earlier, the six Starkids involved in Brian and Joe's plan drove into Concord. Brian was at the wheel, with Lauren sitting in the passenger's seat. They had a van that they had brought in case they needed to go somewhere inconspicuously, which had two seats in the front, two behind that, and three in the back. There was also quite a bit of floor space and a large trunk that they could cram people in, if the need arose.

Right now, Meredith and Dylan were sitting next to each other behind Brian and Lauren, which left Joe and Joey in the back. Lauren had turned on a random radio station that was blasting Sexy and I Know It. Needless to say, all of them were singing along at the top of their lungs.

As they drove closer to the center of town, more and more pedestrians appeared and there were fewer and fewer cars driving. Finally, when they were still several streets from the center of town, a policeman came and knocked on the driver's side window. Lauren reached over and turned down the radio as Brian opened the window.

"Hello there officer," he said pleasantly. "What can I do for you?"

"Well, as you can see, we've got a lot of pedestrians around the center of town. We don't want any accidents, so we've been asking all the drivers who don't absolutely have to park around here to park a bit farther away and then walk in to enjoy the festival." The officer offered a semi-apologetic smile as he removed his hand from the door of the van.

"So, I'm going to have to ask you to park elsewhere, if you can." Brian nodded politely.

"Of course sir. I wouldn't want to run over any innocent festival-goers," he said with a tiny smile that was more like a smirk. The officer gave him an odd look, but backed away from the car. Brian turned down a side street and made a few more turns until the six Starkids found themselves on the same main street they'd been driving down earlier, just moving in the opposite direction. Dylan spotted a parking spot in the parking lot of a restaurant called Bertucci's, which Brian parked in rather haphazardly, in an attempt to nab the spot before anyone else. There were a ton of cars milling about looking for parking, and Brian internally cursed the fact that they'd had rehearsal for most of the day. At the moment, it was 7:10, and they needed to find the stage. The only problem was that none of them knew where they were going. They only knew that it was in the park.

They piled out of the car, and Brian triple-checked that he not locked the keys in the car while Dylan triple-checked that he had the extra set of keys, and Meredith triple-checked that the car was locked. They only triple-checked because they had been known to leave the car unlocked at times or accidentally leave headlights on all night. At least five Starkids had been known to lock their keys in their car and have to call for help. They were taking no chances here, seeing as it would be difficult for them to get help when they didn't know anyone around here. Although the people seemed friendly enough. Two little girls who had walked by had said hello to them and waved over-excitedly. Lauren had bounced up and down and waved back, which had made the girls giggle.

Joe led the group away from their car, but as they walked, Joey started to realize that there might be a problem.

"Hey guys," he said as they stepped onto the sidewalk. Everyone stopped at looked at him.

"Yes Joey?" Meredith asked.

"I don't think we should go down this road."

"Why the hell not?" Joe asked, totally confused.

"What if someone recognizes us?" Joey pointed out. "Much as I love hanging out with fans, I would rather get to the show on time. And then hide in the back so no one there recognizes us." Understanding was dawning on his friends' faces, and Dylan was nodding slowly.

"You've got a point Joey," Dylan said. "We need to find some back roads or something that will take us to the stage without us getting noticed. Everyone agreed, so they turned and headed back across the parking lot in the other direction. They quickly came across a side street where there appeared to be very few people. They cheerfully started walking, chatting animatedly amongst themselves. As they moved among the streets, they deliberately looked for the ones that had almost no people.

"You know," Lauren said after some time of walking on nearly deserted streets. "All this sneaking around makes me feel a bit like a spy." Brian looked up at the word spy and immediately broke out in song.

"Duder's a spy, look at that guy!" Everyone groaned as Brian continued to sing as they continued up the street. It wasn't that he was a bad singer, quite the contrary. It was that the song Duder's a Spy was one of the most repetitive songs in existence and sounded really strange without any background music. They all liked the song, but after Brian had been singing it for almost five minutes straight they were all fed up. Finally, Joe snapped.

"Brian, buddy, I love you and all, but you need to shut the hell up already!" To his surprise, Brian didn't get upset. He just laughed.

"God, I was waiting for you guys to tell me to stop! I figured that you would get annoyed much sooner than that. You could've told me to stop anytime and I would've." He continued laughing as his friends stared at him in disbelief.

"You're freaking kidding me. I could have stopped that anytime? I hate you Brian. I hate you so much," Joey stated as he shook his head. Brian had just stopped laughing, but now chuckled again.

"Come on Joey, I think we both know that's a lie." Joey shook his head.

"I dunno Brian. I think I might actually hate you after this one." Brian dramatically clasped his hands in front of him and fell on his knees in front of Joey.

"No Joey! How could you say that? I thought we had something special," he trailed off at the end like he was about to start sobbing. The girls and Joe were laughing at the sudden improv from their friends. Dylan just rolled his eyes and pulled Brian up off the ground.

"Okay you two. You can work out your complicated relationship later. Right now, we have a show we need to get to." Dylan had a little smirk on his face as he nudged the other two guys forward, and poor Lauren had almost collapsed she was laughing so hard. Meredith was leaning on a wall for support as she caught her breath. Lauren just used Joe as a supporting wall, not that it really bothered him. He just held her up, a grin playing around on his face as he helped his friend catch her breath. The six of them continued along, joking around and laughing as they tried to make their way through the streets.

It took almost half an hour, but the Starkids finally made it to the stage. By Joey's count, they'd gotten lost four times, asked for directions twice, made one bathroom stop, and had and stopped once at a local convenience store when he had noticed they sold Redvines. He was now sharing the tasty twists with Joe as they snuck into the park. It wasn't that the park was closed off or they weren't allowed in; they were sneaking because they knew that this was the place where there was a much higher chance they'd be recognized. They successfully made it into the park, and wandered around in the shadows for a while, following the loud music.

They only turned twice, and suddenly there was a huge, well-lit, outdoor stage in front of them. There was a girl standing onstage, singing To Have a Home. Joey frowned. That seemed like an odd song to start with. He reached over and tapped Meredith on the shoulder. She looked at him questioningly, and he beckoned her closer. She leaned over and he placed a hand next to her ear.

"Do you think this is a strange song to stark with?" He whisper-asked. She looked at him strangely.

"Joey, it's twenty of eight. We missed the first song or two," she whispered back. He silently facepalmed and she chuckled softly. Meredith leaned away and whispered something to Lauren, who nodded and leaned over to whisper to Joe and Dylan, while Meredith turned to Joey and Brian.

"I think we should find somewhere that we can sit," she murmured. Both boys agreed, and the six had a whispered conversation about where they should sit. They knew that they couldn't just plop down in the middle of the crowd – judging from the amount of people singing along, there were more than enough Starkid fans who would freak out if they saw the Starkids. They knew that they needed to stay near the back, but somehow stay away from the crowd. Then Lauren slapped her forehead. They looked at her, slightly alarmed.

"Lo? You okay?" Brian asked, alarm echoing in his voice. She rolled her eyes.

"Of course I'm fine. I just realized that there's a very easy solution to this problem. We should just sit in a tree." They all nodded, agreeing with Lauren's idea, and looked around for suitable trees. They quickly found three trees that were prefect. Joe lifted both Meredith and Lauren into one tree, while Joey and Brian boosted Dylan into another. Brian climbed up after Dylan, and Joey pulled himself into the third with Joe.

The show pretty much blew Joey away. He was shocked at how organized and coordinated it was, while still maintaining an element of fun he recognized from both SPACE Tour and the more current Apocalyptour. The girls looked like they were having the time of their lives up on the stage, singing and dancing and joking around as if they weren't in front of about two hundred people. Joey found himself laughing with and at them, and as he looked around, he saw other audience members doing the same. His fellow Starkids looked as delighted as he felt upon seeing so many elements of this show that were in their own. His delight was only increased when he heard the shortest girl, Moony, they called her, singing Status Quo. Her voice was deeper than he'd expected, but it sounded really good to him. He looked over to Brian once one of the girls broke out into Kick it Up a Notch. From where Joey was sitting, Brian looked extremely pleased with the song. At then end, when the girls snag Super Friends, Joey almost fell out of the tree because he was laughing so hard at his friends. They were all dancing the way they had in the show, and he had no idea what was going on at first, seeing as he hadn't been there. When he finally caught his breath, he just joined in with his dance from Apocalyptour.

At the end of Days of Summer, all the Starkids applauded and cheered as loud as they possibly could. There were some funny looks in their direction, as some people didn't realize that there were other people sitting in the trees. They climbed down as quickly as they could and wove through the relatively sparse trees in the direction of the stage, talking about the performance the whole time.

"All I can say is that was extremely impressive for three eighteen-year-olds," Meredith said firmly. Everyone nodded in agreement, and Brian nudged Joe playfully.

"You better watch out there buddy," he said jokingly. "Those three girls are gonna replace you here in Starkid if you don't step up your game!" Joe glared at him.

"You better watch out there Brian, or I'll replace you as a background dancer with those three girls!" Brian stumbled over his words for a minute, before finally coming up with something to say.

"Well, fuck you! I'm gonna kick your ass Joe!" Dylan immediately leaped forward from the back of the group, where he'd been chatting about the performance of The Way I Do with Meredith.

"Oh no!" Dylan exclaimed, even as Joe turned to Brian with a fake glare.

"Fuck you! I'm taking you down, fuck you!" Dylan jumped between them, forcing them apart by pushing on their chests.

"No," he told the two. "This is not happening right now. Right now we are going to see some kick-ass fans who just had a kick-ass show. We are not having a quote war. We can do that later. With those fans, if you'd like." Joe and Brian reluctantly agreed to stop fake arguing (they had been having a lot of fun) and they continued sneaking around to the back of the stage. It felt like forever, especially since Brian resumed his a cappella rendition of Duder's a Spy. Luckily, he only hummed this time, to avoid notice. It was still annoying though.

When they arrived at the entrance to the backstage area, there were people milling around that were clearly part of the stage crew or something. They were hurrying around, dressed in black, and completely ignoring the six young adults standing awkwardly by the rope barrier. Finally, one young woman came up to them with a curious expression.

"Are you people looking for something?" the blonde girl asked.

"Um, we were wondering if it would be possible for us to talk to the girls who just sang. The Marauders, I think they're called," Joe explained with a charming smile. The girl frowned slightly.

"Do you know them personally? I can't allow anyone in unless they're a family member or have a good reason," the young woman explained. The six Starkids exchanged glances, silently asking each other if they should tell this girl who they were. Lauren gave a subtle nod to everyone, and Joe turned back to the girl.

"Look, it's probably not a good idea to tell you this," he said, leaning in slightly so he could talk more softly. "But we're actually part of Team Starkid. We saw the announcement video they posted on YouTube and we wanted to come and see what was going on and see if they were any good. And they were totally awesome, so we want to tell them in person, if that would be possible." Joe ended his quiet explanation with another smile. The young woman looked astonished, but immediately motioned for them to step onto the other side of the rope. As they stepped over, the girl started talking.

"Wow, I can't believe I'm actually meeting you guys. My name's Madison." The Starkids each introduced themselves to her with smiles, and she was soon smiling too.

"Nice to meet you all," she said. "The girls' tent is this way." She led them through several rows of tents until they came to a bright purple one. The Starkids desperately tried to hold in their giggles at the abrupt, brightly colored tent. For once, it actually worked, and they made a surprisingly stealthy approach. Madison motioned for them not to make a sound as they came up to the tent flap.

"Excuse me ladies, but there are some people here who are insisting they see you. Is it alright if they come in?" Madison asked politely. For a moment, there was silence in the tent, but after a few seconds a tired voice rang out.

"Sure," one of the girls answered. Madison held open the tent flap, and Joey immediately bounded in.

"Did someone say Joey Richter?" he exclaimed in an overly cheerful manner. Lauren entered behind him, followed by Meredith and Dylan.

"Joey, that joke is so old the dinosaurs know it," Brian said as he came in, rolling his eyes as Joe followed him, chuckling. The three girls stared at them in complete shock.

Olivia was pretty sure she had fallen asleep and was now dreaming. It was the only logical explanation she could think of as to why there would be six Starkids standing in front of her, Kat, and Kenzie right now. She shook her head once, like a dog trying to rid its fur of water before looking up at them again.

"Excuse me for a minute while I faint from shock," she said calmly, which snapped her friends out of their respective dazes as the Starkids burst out laughing.

"I will be right there with you," Kat said as Mackenzie nodded fervently in agreement.

"Well don't do that," Dylan said calmly, though amusement colored his tone. "Then we'd have to take you to the hospital, and that would ruin the whole evening." Olivia looked at her friends, noting that they looked as surprised and overjoyed as she felt. Kat stood and turned to the Starkids, her friends following behind her.

"What do you mean 'the whole evening?' We have to get out of here in, like, ten minutes," she pointed out. The Starkids exchanged grins, then turned back to the girls.

"You didn't think we were just going to come here, say 'hi,' and leave, did you?" Lauren asked, a wide grin on her face. The three girls felt huge smiles growing on their faces. They had a funny feeling that this was going to be the coolest night ever.

AN: OH MY DEAD GOD THIS CHAPTER IS LONG. I didn't mean for it to be this long… it just kind of happened. I hope you guys don't mind that. It's unlikely there will be any other chapters this long, since the majority of the length came from the performance, and I don't know if I'll be putting any other performances in here. And I know I said there would be something sad in here, but that didn't happen because the chapter was too long. The mysterious sad event will be in the next chapter. So, please review! I appreciate each and every one! I have to thank my beta for the idea of the Puppy Kitties reference! I hope you all spotted it, seeing as it's pretty obvious! I think that's everything! Until next time fellow Starkids! Moony out! *taps wand on ground* ;)


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: Well, the last chapter was extremely long. That was unintentional, as I mentioned in the last chapter. This chapter won't be as long. Probably. No guarantees on that. This will feature the mysterious sad event that I keep mentioning; I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not, but it's happening. And now it's time for me to answer my wonderful reviewers! And after that, a disclaimer! And then I suppose you can get your chapter. ;)**

**AryaTheElf24: Ta-da! An update, just for you! …and everyone else. XD P.S. I'm a fan of Eragon too!**

**Pumbaa: That would be fantastic. I would die a little bit. And thanks!**

**Pigwidgeon: Okay, we're the same person. It's official. Almost everything you say that is the same between you and Olivia is the true stuff about me that I put into her. I'm sufficiently freaked out. I am a Ravenclaw, my friend loves doing my hair in Dutch braids, my Harry Potter-obsessed friends call me Moony, and I have a low voice. We are definitely the same person. And… what exactly does the Pigfarts club do? XD**

**PenMagic: I'm glad you like it so much! I wrote a song for the contest with my friend! It was really fun, and I think it was really cool that they did the contest. And yeah, I didn't really know what ages any of them are, so I just kind of made it up. XD The only thing I know for sure is that Matt Lang is a year younger than Nick. I know nothing else in terms of ages, so I'm just making it up as I go.**

**Disclaimer: So I forgot to put in the last chapter that I don't own any of the songs, so that's right here. I do not own Starkid music, much as I wish I did. Nor do I own any of their shows or anything else that is mentioned that is theirs.**

* * *

Chapter 5: Dinner and Depression

Olivia was still in a daze as she gathered her stuff from around the purple tent. She couldn't believe that the Starkids were actually here, speaking to her, and implying that they wanted to hang out with her and her friends. It was a surreal experience, and she was determined to enjoy every minute of it.

She turned back to the entrance of the tent once she had gathered various hairbrushes, hair elastics, lip-gloss containers, clothes, and other items from around the tent. She was pulling on her light warm-up jacket from volleyball as the Starkids started firing questions at them.

"So are you all going to college in the fall?" Dylan asked. Each of the girls nodded.

"I'm headed for Colby in Maine," Mackenzie said. "I was recruited onto the volleyball team there." Each of the Starkids congratulated her with smiles and obvious excitement.

"I'm going to Harvard," Kat said cheerfully. "I'm playing volleyball there too." More congratulations echoed around the tent.

"And I'm going to Yale," Olivia said shyly. "I'll be playing volleyball as well." Most of the Starkids looked shocked at the girls' schools as more congratulations were passed around.

"God, I'm surrounded by geniuses," Brian said lightly, which made everyone laugh. "But seriously, what are you guys studying?"

"Education," Mackenzie said promptly. "I'm going to be an English teacher."

"If you don't end up an Olympic volleyball player first," Olivia said dryly, which caused more laughter.

"I'm studying law," Kat said.

"And I'm going for engineering," Olivia said. Joe shook his head.

"Overachievers, all of you! Making the rest of us feel insignificant by going to big fancy schools and using big words to describe your major," he said, shaking his head. He was obviously joking, and the girls were giggling as Joey turned to him with a very serious expression.

"Joe, I think that they're trying to make you feel bad. They've obviously heard that you struggle to understand big words like 'law,' and don't like you, so they're trying to keep you out of the conversation." Joe smacked Joey's shoulder, which only made everyone laugh harder as they exited the tent. Kat led the group, chatting easily with Joe and Lauren. Kenzie followed her, explaining something about volleyball to Brian, who looked extremely interested. Dylan and Meredith were behind them, chatting about something. Olivia, who was walking behind them, thought she heard something about Parcheesi, but she wasn't too sure. She was too busy being overly conscious of the fact that Joey was walking beside her. He kept turning his head in an attempt to see everything around the park. From her perspective, a half step behind and a few inches shorter, he looked ridiculous. She bit her lip in an attempt to hold in her giggles, but couldn't stop the smile from spreading across her face. He happened to glance at her, and obviously noticed the barely suppressed giggles because he gave her a questioning look.

"What did I do?" he asked, confusion flashing across his face. She laughed aloud at that, which only increased the confusion on his face.

"You keep turning around," she explained. "All I can think of is a little kid in Disney World or something, trying to see everything at once." The comparison made Joey laugh too, and he turned around so he was walking normally beside her again, keeping his eyes either on her or the path in front of him. As they walked, Joey started absentmindedly chattering to her about something. She responded rather disinterestedly, her mind elsewhere. She had a horrible feeling that she was forgetting something, she just couldn't remember what. She was jolted back to awareness when Joey nudged her shoulder.

She looked over and up at him, and saw he was raising an eyebrow.

"I have no idea what the question was, so I'm going to go with yes," Olivia said. Joey burst out laughing.

"What?" she asked, obviously confused. He kept laughing as he answered.

"I just asked you how many shows you've performed in. You said 'yes.' That doesn't make any sense at all," he explained. Olivia burst out laughing at her own ridiculousness as Joey continued laughing.

"Well, now that I'm know what I'm being asked, the real answer is that was my first one. It was also the first one that the three of us have performed in as a group. I've never sang in front of any sort of crowd before tonight," she admitted. Joey looked completely shocked.

"You have to be kidding," he said. "You all looked so calm up there! I thought you must have performed a million times before! You looked like professionals!" Olivia felt a blush rush up her neck and into her cheeks. She looked down at her feet before looking back up to the amazed Starkid.

"Thanks," she said shyly. He smiled warmly at her, but seemed to notice her shyness and diverted the conversation to more neutral topics. They walked to the exit chatting about school. They traded funny stories, and he gave her some advice on how to survive college. Most of it was ridiculous, and seemed to have no real purpose other than to make her laugh, but she appreciated the distraction from her recent performance. She wasn't quite ready to talk about that yet. Her overly critical brain was already reminding her of about fifty minor footwork mistakes she'd made over the course of the show, not to mention a couple of missed notes. However, Joey's random funny comments and constant chatter kept her sufficiently distracted until they got to the parking lot.

As they grouped up in the general area of where the girls were parked, Olivia noticed an older man walking steadily over. He was dragging his right leg slightly, but there was a determination in his step and a smile on his face. Olivia's face lit up at the sight of him, and she bounded away from the group to greet him, leaving a bunch of confused Starkids.

"Who is that?" Lauren asked curiously.

"It's her grandfather," Kenzie explained. "They're really close, but he lives on the south shore and they don't see each other a lot. He must have come up to see the show. I think she mentioned that he said he might, if he was feeling up to it." They watched as Olivia hugged the lanky and muscular man and he gave her a bouquet of flowers. She gestured back with her free hand and when he nodded she led him over to her friends. As soon as they were close, it was easy to see the huge smile on Olivia's face to match the smile on her grandfather's.

"Everyone, this is my grandfather," she said, happiness radiating from every word. Each Starkid shook his hand as they introduced themselves.

"It's very nice to meet you all," he said in a friendly way. Dylan looked puzzled at the sound of his voice. Mr. Ioria noticed and chuckled slightly.

"You look a bit puzzled there, Dylan, was it?" Dylan nodded, and the older man looked pleased that he'd gotten the name right.

"Sorry sir, it's just that you don't have any sort of Boston accent at all. I know it's not always pronounced, but I think every person I've heard speak while I've been here has had some sort of accent." Olivia's grandfather chuckled, nodding slightly.

"You're right, I don't have the slight accent I should. That's because I was sent to this country as a refugee when I was sixteen, so I consciously attempted to get rid of my accent when I was in school," he explained. Everyone thought that was the coolest thing ever, and tried to pepper him with questions, which he easily waved away.

"No, no, now is not the time for questions. I just came over so I could congratulate Kat and Mackenzie on a fantastic performance!" The two girls thanked him as the Starkids nodded in agreement.

"Now, what were all of you planning on doing?" he asked as he shifted his weight slightly from one leg to the other. The six Starkids exchanged quick glances before Meredith spoke.

"Well, if it's okay with the girls, we were going to go find some food and then hang out for a bit. If they're okay with that. And if they're not doing anything else, of course." Kat and Kenzie's faces lit up immediately, but Olivia looked over to her grandfather, then back to the group.

"I'm sorry guys, but I was actually planning on going out to dinner with my grandfather tonight, seeing as I don't get to see him very much and all," she explained in an apologetic voice. Everyone shouted down her apology, saying that she should definitely have time with her family. Once the kids quieted down, Mr. Ioria spoke up.

"I can see that you all want my granddaughter to come with you," he stated calmly. "And I would be more than happy to let her go with you." Everyone immediately started to protest, including Olivia herself, but the older man just waved them off.

"No, no, I insist. From what Olivia has explained to me, you six are the people who originally sang these songs. What she didn't need to say is that it's unlikely that she'll ever get the chance to be around you all again. I would rather have her take this opportunity than spend time with me. She can see me anytime," he pointed out with a smile. Olivia looked like she was extremely torn, but her grandfather leaned closer to her and murmured something in her ear. She nodded slightly and threw her arms around him. He hugged her back securely and then pulled back and kissed her on the cheek. He said his goodbyes to everyone, then walked off in the direction he'd some. Olivia turned back to the group, a smile on her face, still holding the flowers her grandfather had given her.

"Well, it looks like I'll be hanging out with you guys tonight," she said brightly.

"You have the nicest grandfather ever," Meredith said. "He just sacrificed spending time with you so you can have fun with us."

"And he's refugee!" Brian exclaimed. "That's the coolest thing I've ever heard!" Olivia nodded slightly in agreement.

"It's way less interesting to me," she explained when questioned about her apparent disinterest in the subject. "I've been hearing the story my whole life."

"So where is he from?" Joe asked curiously.

"Bulgaria," Olivia said. "But then he moved to Greece after escaping from there." Everyone tried to ask her more questions, but she waved them off.

"Really, my family history isn't that interesting," she assured them. "Now, what is going on?" There was a moment of confusion where the Starkids tried to remember what this part of the plan was. It was Meredith who remembered first and she hushed everyone before speaking.

"We were thinking about going out to dinner with you guys, if you're not too tired," she said. The three performers exchanged glances and Kat spoke.

"Prongs, Moony, quick! Escape over to the other side of those cars so we can have a secret conversation!" They immediately went into spy mode and sneakily sneaked around the cars while the Starkids laughed and Brian sang Duder's a Spy. Again.

"So what do you guys want to do?" Mackenzie asked. The other two shrugged noncommittally and she rolled her eyes.

"Fine, I'll say what I want to do first. I'm pretty tired, so maybe we should invite them to one of our houses and get take-out? That way, we can put on comfy clothes and just hang out. Plus, they can stay as long as they want if we do that."

"I am totally okay with that plan," Kat said almost immediately, which made them all laugh. "Seriously, though, I'm pretty tired too. What about you Liv?"

"Yep, I agree. Performing does seem to take a lot out of you," Olivia said. "Where should we go? I think both my sisters are at my house, possibly asleep or getting ready for bed. I don't think my mom would be too happy if we showed up with six extra people." Kat snorted.

"Let's face it Olivia, your mom would be more upset that you brought four guys into the house," she said dryly. They all laughed at that, mostly because it was true.

"Well, my little brother is at my house, but we might be able to go there," Kenzie offered. Kat shook her head.

"No, you can all come to my house. Both my sisters are at friends' houses tonight, and my parents are on vacation, as you all know." They looked around at each other and nodded.

"Well that was considerably easier than most of the decisions we've made as a group," Olivia said brightly. The other two laughed with her as they thought about the hours they'd spent agonizing over the show and everything that went along with it. They walked back to the Starkids, still giggling, which caused some raised eyebrows.

"Did something happen over there that we should know about?" Dylan asked, one eyebrow raised as he asked.

"Well," Kat said. "We're all pretty tired from that show, which you should be aware of. So, we were wondering if you guys would like to come to my house, and we can get some pizza or something and just hang out."

"That sounds fantastic!" Joe exclaimed, and the other Starkids cheerfully voiced their agreement.

"Where are you guys parked?" Kenzie asked the Starkids as they resumed walking. Olivia had driven the three girls there, so they were all in one car.

"We're a few streets away, in the parking lot of some restaurant. What was it called again?" Brian turned back to the Starkids as he voiced the question.

"Bertucci's," Lauren supplied.

"Oh, I know where that is," Olivia said. "Why don't you get in, and I'll give you a ride over."

"No, it's okay, you don't have to do that," Dylan said.

"Yeah, we really do," Kat said bluntly. "You have to follow Olivia to my house." That silenced any protesting Starkids as Olivia unlocked the car. She hopped in the driver's seat and pulled the door closed behind her. She turned just in time to see Kat and Joe engaged in an epic battle for the passenger's seat. She watched as they both tried to get in at the same time, which didn't work out at all. Joe, being taller, hit his head on the top of doorframe while simultaneously and accidentally shoving Kat into the side of the same doorframe. After another moment of struggling, Kat finally managed to slip past him into the seat, seeing as she was a couple of inches shorter and significantly thinner. That left six Starkids and one Mackenzie to fit in the remaining five seats. And the trunk was always available, of course.

After almost five minutes of deliberation, it was finally decided that Joe and Dylan would sit in the trunk, Joey and Brian would sit in the back two seats, and Meredith, Lauren, and Mackenzie would sit in the three seats directly behind Olivia and Kat. Of course, it was much harder when they actually tried to get into the car as opposed to just talking about it. They finally managed it, although Mackenzie's knees were sticking out over the center console because she was in the middle seat of the second row. Olivia pulled out of the parking lot, blocking out all the chatter from the back rows as she carefully navigated through the traffic clogging up a good part of the streets.

It took almost twenty minutes because of the traffic, but Olivia finally managed to get to the Bertucci's parking lot. The girls piled out of the backseat and moved the seat forward so Joey and Brian could get out as well. Olivia went around to the trunk after shutting the car off and opened it to let Joe and Dylan out. They ignored the alarmed and amused looks of the people surrounding them. The Starkids thanked Olivia and went to pile into their van when Joe suddenly turned around, causing poor Meredith to run straight into his chest. He steadied her as everyone laughed.

"Sorry Mer! I just thought of something," he explained in an apologetic tone. "Why don't we get each other's phone numbers so that if we get lost trying to follow you, we can call and you can direct us to where we need to go." Everyone thought that was a fantastic idea and spent the next few minutes running around and trying to get phone numbers out to everyone. Olivia almost gave Dylan her number twice and almost gave Lauren her mom's number because there was only one number difference between her own and her mom's. Kat almost dropped her phone about six times, and actually did once. Luckily, Joe was apparently a secret ninja and swiped it out of midair, much to everyone's amazement.

Once everyone had exchanged numbers, the Marauders got into Olivia's car and the Starkids got into their van. Olivia pulled out first, with the van right on her back bumper. It made her extremely nervous, but she tried to ignore the fact that it looked like Brian was trying to combine their two cars into one in favor of focusing on not crashing and not running a red light.

After about ten stressful minutes of weaving through the streets of Concord, Olivia finally turned onto a small side street. They drove quite a ways down and turned onto another street. Then they drove down a few houses before turning into a natural wood house. It was two stories, and there was a window above the garage that implied there was a room up there as well. The driveway was long enough for both the cars to fit comfortably, and there were trees everywhere.

Everyone piled out of the cars, talking cheerfully. The Starkids offered plenty of compliments to Kat on her house, which she accepted modestly. She led them up the short brick path, which was lined with plants of many shapes, sizes, and colors. Kat pulled a key out of her pocket and unlocked the front door. She went in first, and everyone followed her.

They entered into a short hallway, with a wall directly to their right and the actual hall to the left. It seemed to have a double purpose as a mudroom, seeing as there were shoes and garden tools lying around in random spots. Kat led them through a door directly in front of them, which opened into a sitting room with a single, comfy-looking couch and two chairs. Kat, Olivia, and Mackenzie instructed the Starkids to stay there or in the kitchen, which was the next room to the right, while they went upstairs to put on sweatpants and such.

"Wait, you keep a set of clothes at each other's houses?" Joey asked, confusion written across his face. All three girls burst out laughing and shook their heads.

"No, no, no," Olivia said. "All three of us brought overnight bags with us to the show. We were planning on staying at one person's house anyway, we just didn't know where we were going." The puzzled Starkid nodded to show his understanding, and the girls bounded out of the house and grabbed their bags. They came back in and dispersed; Olivia vanished into what appeared to be a bathroom on the first floor, while Mackenzie and Kat went upstairs. The Starkids chatted amongst themselves for a few minutes, until they heard footsteps. Turning, they saw that the three girls were back, and wearing pajamas. Kenzie had a pair of blue sleep pants, and a T-shirt advertising some sort of softball league. Kat was wearing a pair of short black shorts with fake paint splatters on them and a white tank top. Olivia had a pair of short teal shorts with Snoopy and Woodstock on them and a rainbow sweatshirt with a smiling whale on the front that said 'Cape Cod.'

"Okay, let's get food," Kat said cheerfully. She grabbed a menu for a local pizza place and asked everyone what they wanted. This led to a bunch of yelling as random foods were screamed out until Kat was forced to yell for silence.

"Who wants cheese?" Several hands went up. "Who wants pepperoni?" A couple of hands went up. "Who wants bacon?" Every hand went up. "Okay, so I'll get two cheese, two pepperoni, and three bacon. Does that sound good?" There were general yells of assent, and Kat left the room to call in the order. She came back in less than five minutes and put the cordless phone back on its charger.

"They said it'll be about half an hour. Let's pick a movie!" There were several shouts of pleasure at the idea, and Kat led the way back out into the mudroom/hallway. They went down the mini hall and Kat opened the door, which led to the garage. She then led them to the back right corner of the garage, where there was another door. That was opened, and she led the group up a set of stairs into a totally awesome room.

When the group stepped left off the stairs, seeing as that was where the room was, they were greeted by a chocolate brown, squishy-looking sofa that was long enough to hold all of them, if they all got really cozy. Behind the sofa, there was an open space dominated by a pool table in the center. The walls on the left and right of the pool table were covered with shelves, which were covered in movies. This was pointed out to everyone by Kat, and there was a mad dash to see which movies the Hightowers had.

As it turned out, the Hightowers had a lot of movies. This immediately became a source of argument as everyone pulled out different movies. After some time, they eventually got it down to three movies; Mulan, Hercules, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2. It was decided that they should scrap the Harry Potter movie, seeing as they'd all seen it multiple times. When they realized that there was no way to choose between Mulan and Hercules, they just decided to watch both. Kat was in the middle of setting up the DVD player to play Mulan, which they'd decided to watch first, when the doorbell rang.

"I bet that's the pizza guy," Kat said, starting to walk to the stairs. "I'll go pay him and bring up the pizza." Joe stopped her by holding up a hand and moving to the stairs himself.

"No, I'll get it," he said firmly. "We were planning on paying if we went out, and it still applies here." Kat looked uncertain, but Joe was already descending the stairs with Dylan just behind him. She turned to Kenzie and Olivia.

"Can you guys go downstairs and get a bunch of different sodas from the fridge?" The two girls nodded and bounded downstairs. They passed the Starkids paying the pizza guy and went into the kitchen. It took a minute, but Olivia finally found the plastic shopping bags, and they each loaded one with Sprite, root beer, orange soda, and Diet Coke, as well as some iced tea. They headed back upstairs, where they found the pizzas spread across the pool table and plates tucked into one corner. There was an open space at one end of the table, and Olivia and Kenzie headed over there. They neatly lined up the sodas by which kind they were. Everyone grabbed some slices of pizza and a drink and sprawled out around the room. People were leaning on walls and sitting on the floor, as well as sitting on the couch.

No one wanted to start the movie until they were done eating, seeing as there wasn't enough room on the couch for everyone and their plates. Because of that, they didn't start the movie until almost half an hour after the pizza arrived. Once everyone was finished, Kat went down to the garage and came upstairs with a trash bag, which everyone threw their paper plates and soda cans in. Then came another problem; who was going to sit where.

The couch had a total of five cushions, with two on each side of a corner. They had to fit nine people on it. Everyone seemed to realize this at the same time and dove for the couch. Lauren and Meredith managed to grab the end of the couch closest to the TV, with Lauren almost sitting on Meredith's lap. Dylan dove into the corner, with Kenzie slipping in on his right. Brian squished himself between Mackenzie and Lauren, nearly elbowing Kenzie in the face as he sat down. Kat dropped down on Dylan's other side as Joey dropped onto the other end of the couch. Olivia sat beside Joey, and Joe was the last to sit down, dropping between Olivia and Kat. Unfortunately, he wasn't really paying attention, and sat on Kat's leg. She yelped in pain, and he immediately jumped up. When he realized he'd sat on her, a look of horror appeared on his face.

"Oh my God Kat, I'm so sorry! Are you okay?" he asked, looking extremely concerned. She assured him she was not dead and her leg was not broken, and he looked relieved. This time, he waited for Olivia to move closer to Joey before carefully sitting beside Kat. Of course, the lack of space meant that Joe had to put his arm around her for them to be remotely comfortable. This problem was occurring everywhere; Lauren and Meredith were snuggled up together, Dylan was snuggling with about twenty pillows, Brian and Kenzie were snuggled up close, and Olivia was curled up against Joey, with his arm around her so she wasn't laying on it and cutting off his circulation.

"Is everyone feeling like their personal space is completely violated?" Lauren asked in a sickly-sweet voice. Everyone else said something to the effect of 'shut up Lauren,' seeing as the opening music for Mulan was playing. Everyone shifted around one last time, then fell silent for the movie.

The movie went extremely well, and everyone enjoyed themselves. It was quickly realized that everyone knew all the songs, and they all sang along. This led to a lot of laughter, especially when the Marauders sang their volleyball version of I'll Make a Man Out of You. It was getting close to midnight by the time Mulan ended, and everyone was half asleep as Kat wriggled out from between the wall of pillows Dylan had constructed and Joe's arm to put Hercules on.

When Kat looked around at about halfway through Hercules, almost everyone was asleep. Meredith was slumped sideways on the armrest, and Lauren's head had fallen onto her friend's arm. Kenzie had fallen back onto Dylan's pillow wall and was using that for a pillow, with her legs stretched across Brian's lap. Brian had somehow fallen asleep sitting up straight with his head falling back onto the cushions. Dylan was curled into a ball in the corner, still surrounded by pillows. When she looked to her left, Joey had fallen asleep with his head on the cushion of the couch, and Olivia was sleeping curled up against him, her head either on his upper arm or shoulder. She couldn't quite see, but was tempted to take pictures for blackmail. That idea went out the window when she realized that her phone was halfway across the room and Joe's arm was holding her firmly in place. She looked up at his face, and was startled to see that he was still awake and watching the movie rather intently. He seemed to notice he was being watched and glanced down at her, a grin forming on his face when he realized she was still awake.

"Still awake I see," he whispered, trying not to wake the others.

"One of the few, apparently," she said quietly, the end of apparently being drowned out in a yawn. Joe chuckled softly.

"Why don't you just go to sleep? You're obviously tired, and I'm not going anywhere anytime soon, so feel free to use me as a pillow," he said with a borderline cheeky grin. She rolled her eyes but shifted around so she was using his arm and shoulder for a pillow and closed her eyes.

"Goodnight," she muttered, already drifting off. She thought she heard him say good night in return, but she wasn't too sure, seeing as she was already falling into the blackness.

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

Olivia was brutally awoken by blinding sunlight in her face the next morning. She instinctively opened her eyes, then scrunched them shut again as the sunlight invaded her pupils. She moaned rather loudly and twisted to burrow into her pillow and try to go back to sleep. She froze when she realized that her pillow was not only warm, it seeming to be moving up and down in time with someone's laughter. She slowly tilted her head up and opened her eyes very slowly. When she could finally see straight, she was greeted by a very amused Joey Richter grinning down at her.

"Morning sleepyhead," he said in a teasing voice. She groaned again at the word morning and closed her eyes, which made him laugh harder.

"What, am I really that bad of a pillow?" he asked, mock hurt in his voice. She frowned slightly, still not quite awake.

"No, you are a good pillow. I just don't want it to be morning. I'm still sleepy," she explained in a voice still rough from sleep. The smile on Joey's face appeared far more sympathetic now as she shifted her head off of what was apparently his ribcage and sat up.

"Yeah, I could've used a few more hours of sleep, but whatever. I'll nap later," Joey said with a shrug. Olivia nodded and stretched her arms above her head, her jaws stretching in a huge yawn. When she brought her arms back down, she shook her head like a dog and looked around at the couch.

Brian had shifted at some point during the night, and was now using Mackenzie's stomach as a pillow, with a real pillow on top of his head. Meredith was still using the back cushions of the couch as a pillow, and her legs were stretched out on top of Brian's. Lauren was nowhere to be seen, and Kat seemed to have vanished as well. Dylan was presumably still in his pillow cage, although she wasn't sure because someone had put some of the pillows on top of the little enclosure. Joe was leaning against the little half wall between the stairs and the rest of the room, and looked like he was still half asleep. She smiled sleepily at him, and he smiled in return.

"Morning," he said in a rough voice. Apparently, he hadn't been awake long either.

"Hi," she said. "Where are Kat and Lauren?"

"They went downstairs to make breakfast," he told her. She nodded and stood up, tugging at her shorts to get them back to facing the right way. She yawned again and padded slowly and stiffly to the stairs.

"Mmkay," she said, still not quite awake. "I'm gonna go help them. Not that I'll really be much help, but I'll pretend." The boys laughed softly and Olivia headed slowly down the stairs. She almost tripped about four times, but managed to save herself. She wandered through the garage and almost stepped on a few things, but somehow avoided injuring herself on the various power tools lying around. She wandered into thee kitchen and found Lauren and Kat preparing food.

There was a big griddle plugged into an outlet that Lauren was carefully cooking pancakes on. Kat was pulling a bunt pan full of monkey bread **(AN: If you don't know what that is, go eat it. Now. It is the best food ever.) **out of the grinned at the sight of some of her favorite foods, not to mention the sudden happiness that overcame her as she realized that she and her friends were interacting with the Starkids as if they'd been friends forever. She wasn't sure how that happened, but she definitely wasn't complaining.

"Morning you two," she said cheerfully. Kat and Lauren both looked up and grinned.

"Morning Liv!" Lauren said cheerfully. "Do you mind if I call you Liv? I didn't even ask, I'm sorry!" Olivia laughed brightly at Lauren's concern.

"Of course you can call me Liv! It's one of the few nicknames I actually like," she said with a smile. Lauren looked relieved.

"Hey, Liv, would you mind getting some plates and cups and silverware and setting the table?" Kat asked as she got out a platter to put the monkey bread on. Olivia nodded and fished out nine plates from the cabinet. She went and put them on the table, then returned to the kitchen and got nine glasses. After she put those on the table, she went to the silverware drawer and got out a large of handful of forks, then an equally large handful of spoons, and, finally, a slightly smaller handful of knives. She organized these three piles on the table, then got out a bunch of napkins and put those in a pile in the center of the table. She stepped back and admired her handiwork just as Kat came in with the monkey bread. A few moments later, Lauren came in with an absolutely monstrous plate of pancakes. The three girls returned to the kitchen, where they gathered fruits such as apples, oranges, cantaloupe, and watermelon. They cut the melons up into edible pieces and put them in two separate bowls. The apples and oranges went into the same bowl, and all the fruit went onto the table. Kat darted back into the kitchen and came back a few moments later with a gallon of milk, a carton of orange juice, and a jug of apple juice.

"Well this looks delicious," Lauren said after a moment. Both Olivia and Kat laughed and nodded in agreement.

"We should go get the others now," Olivia pointed out. The other two nodded, and the three girls headed back up to the poolroom above the garage.

Up there, they found that everyone else had woken up or was just waking up. Dylan was pulling himself off of the couch, unintentionally flinging pillows everywhere. Meredith was sitting up and rubbing her eyes, a yawn stretching across her face. Brian was just waking up, and looked very confused as to why his head was on Mackenzie's stomach. Kenzie herself was still asleep, but her eyes cracked open as Brian lifted his head off of her stomach. Joe and Joey were sitting on the couch, and grinned at the girls as they came up.

"Hello ladies," Joe said easily. "What's going on?"

"Breakfast is ready," Kat said bluntly. Everyone who was just waking up looked up at her, now wide-awake.

"Why didn't you say so sooner?" Dylan asked. "I'm starving!" Everyone laughed at his excitement at the prospect of food. The people sprawled across the couch seemed to agree, however, because they hauled themselves off the couch and headed unsteadily to the stairs.

Breakfast was a cheery affair. Everyone adored Kat's homemade monkey bread and everyone ate as much of it as they could. People sat around at the table and talked about everything and anything for over an hour. The conversation was abruptly ended when Brian's phone rang loudly. He immediately grabbed it and checked who it was. After reading the name, he grimaced.

"Who is it?" Joey asked curiously.

"Julia," Brian said grimly. All the Starkids winced, and Brian left the room to take the call.

"Why do we not want to hear from Julia?" Kenzie asked, bewildered.

"It's not that we don't want to hear from her," Meredith explained. "It's that she's the director of the tour and we have a show tonight. That we're probably supposed to be rehearsing for right now." Guilt immediately flashed across the faces of the Marauders.

"I'm sorry," Olivia said. "We didn't mean to keep you here if you have to leave." The Starkids shook their heads, denying that it was hers or her friends' fault.

"If it's anyone's fault, it's ours," Joey said firmly. "We were fully aware that we should've left. We just didn't want to leave our new friends."

The amount of happiness each Marauder felt at being officially referred to as a friend by a Starkid, and to have the others nodding and voicing agreement, was indescribable. A huge grin spread across Kat's face, and wouldn't go away, no matter how hard she tried to stop. Kenzie's whole face lit up; her eyes were sparkling and a grin was slowly creeping up on her face as well. Olivia felt like her heart was going to explode from sheer joy.

"Well, if you're going to blame yourselves, I'm not going to argue," Kat said after a minute, leaning back in her chair. Everyone laughed, and just as the laughter died down Brian re-entered the room. He sat down in his chair and looked around at the table to see everyone looking at him.

"What?" he asked, completely confused.

"What did she say?" Joe asked impatiently.

"Oh. Well, she started to yell at me, but stopped once I told her where we've been. Then she told me to, and I quote, 'tell everyone to get their asses to the House of Blues ASAP because we need to rehearse.' Isn't she charming?" he asked, sarcasm dripping from his tone as everyone laughed again.

"Well, it looks like we need to leave," Dylan said.

"We'll help with the dishes and stuff first though," Meredith chimed in. Kat tried to tell her that wasn't necessary, but she didn't listen and started grabbing plates. Everyone joined in with the cleaning effort, and it was done in fifteen minutes or less. Then the Starkids went back up to the poolroom to make sure they hadn't left anything up there. After a thorough examination of everywhere they'd been in the house, it was determined that no one had lost anything. So, at last, it was time for goodbyes.

Everyone was a bit saddened that the mini-party was breaking up. They stalled for as long as they could, but eventually Dylan reminded them that Julia was going to kill them if they didn't get over there soon. That made them all practically dive towards the van, but not before one last hug.

"So you guys are coming to the show, right?" Joey asked as he crushed Olivia against him.

"Unfortunately, no," Kat said glumly. "We didn't realize tickets were for sale until almost six days after they went on sale. By that time, it was sold out." The expression on the Starkids' faces was a mixture of anger and disbelief, with sadness in there as well. Joey seemed to have forgotten he was mid-hug, and was gaping at Kat like a fish.

"Joey, you look like a fish," Lauren said bluntly. "And let Olivia go for God's sake! It looks like you're suffocating her!" Joey jumped slightly at the reminder of the younger girl in his arms and immediately released her. She stumbled back, gasping for air in an overdramatic way.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to almost kill you, I promise!" Joey said in an apologetic tone. She stopped wheezing and looked at him. The mixture of worry and confusion on his face made her laugh loudly and brightly for a moment.

"Don't worry about it, I'm fine," she assured him.

"You guys really aren't coming?" Meredith asked, sadness invading her tone. The Marauders nodded sadly, and now everyone looked sad.

"I got this," Brian said suddenly, and everyone turned to him with questioning expressions. "We'll sneakily sneak you in. They can't argue if we bring you with us, right?" Everyone burst out laughing, but when they looked at Brian's face, they saw he looked completely serious.

"Wait, were you being serious about that?" Lauren asked. Brian nodded, and everyone sobered up in an instant.

"Can you even do that?" Olivia wondered aloud. Brian shrugged.

"No idea, but who cares? Let's do it!" So everyone went back into the house while the girls ran around getting ready. When they were almost done, they yelled for the Starkids to go outside and wait for them, which the actors did without question. When the three girls came out, they couldn't help but chuckle.

As luck would have it, all three girls had brought Starkid-related T-shirts to wear that day. Kenzie was wearing a pair of blue plaid shorts and had a light blue shirt that read "Supermegafoxyawesomehot" across the front. Kat had a pair of white shorts and a purple shirt that read "Keep calm, it's gonna be totally awesome." Olivia was wearing short jean shorts similar to the ones she'd been wearing at the concert, and her shirt was red and said "Keep calm, I'm a Starship Ranger." Each of them was wearing the Converse they'd sported at the show whether it matched or not. They were all carrying purses and sweatshirts, and looked extremely happy.

Kenzie opened the door to the van, and was immediately confronted with a problem; there was only one seat left in the back row, between Joe and Joey. The three girls realized this at the same time and dove into the van. There was quite a bit of scrambling around, but after what appeared to be some scuffling, Kat claimed the final seat. Not that the other two really thought they had a serious chance, but they liked to make themselves feel better and try.

That left the problem of where to put the other two Marauders. There was enough room for one of them to sit on the floor between the two seats of the middle row, but that still left another person.

After a quick discussion between Olivia and Mackenzie, they decided it would be a good idea to have Kenzie sit on the floor because she was taller and weighed more. Olivia just laid across the laps of the three in the back, with her head in Joey's lap and her feet in Joe's. Lauren looked at them in the rearview mirror and started to laugh hysterically. That made everyone else turn around, which caused them to laugh as well. There were plenty of jokes and laughter the whole car ride into the city, mostly about how casual Olivia looked lying across the three other people's laps.

The drive to the House of Blues didn't take long at all. There was almost no traffic, surprisingly, and they kept hitting green lights. When they arrived, Brian parked very close to the building and everyone piled out, stretching and smiling. They headed into the building and the girls blindly followed the Starkids through several hallways and one set of extremely skeptical security guards. And suddenly, almost like magic, there was a stage in front of them. And there, on the stage, were the other Starkids.

The girls were almost stuck dumb when they saw the performers onstage. Jim was sitting on one of the prop crates, eating a banana, while Brian Rosenthal absently twirled his hat around in his hands on the floor next to him. Julia and Jamie were sitting on the edge of the stage and chatting with Charlene and Megan. Clark was sitting behind his keyboard with his forehead on the keys, and the other members of the band were sitting around him with their heads on their instruments. Corey appeared to have given up entirely and was sprawled out on the floor, completely asleep. Liam was walking around with a camera, filming everything, and he was the first one to look around when the door opened to announce the return of the other performers.

"Well, it's the return of our wandering Starkids! Where have you been off too, hmm?" Liam asked, turning the camera on his friends. Olivia, who was extremely camera-shy (not to mention people-shy and every other kind of shy that exists), ducked behind Joe and Joey as soon as Liam turned. She saw Kenzie slip behind Brian, and had to hide her laughter as Kat tried to hide behind Lauren, who was nearly a foot shorter. It looked like someone was trying to hide a tree behind a lamp.

"Just quit it with the camera Liam," Dylan said tiredly. "I personally am not in the mood, and I don't think anyone else really is either." There were various noises of agreement from the other Starkids, so Liam sighed and shut the camera off. Each Marauder poked their head out from their hiding place, and Jamie happened to look over just in time to see three blonde heads pop out from behind her friends. She started to hysterically laugh, and when the other Starkids looked over, the girls repeated the action, which made everyone laugh.

"You guys look like the meerkats from The Lion King 1 and ½!" Lauren exclaimed through giggles. Olivia immediately widened her eyes, looked around in a wary manner, and started singing.

"Dig a tunnel, dig, dig a tunnel! Dig a tunnel, dig, dig a tunnel! Dig a tunnel, dig, dig, a tunnel! Quick, before the hyenas come, DIG!" she sang in a semi-squeaky voice. Kat and Kenzie joined in the minute they realized what she was singing, and soon everyone in the room was singing along. Once they realized that those were the only words they knew, everyone dissolved into laughter.

"Well, now that we've successfully broken the ice by singing loudly and obnoxiously, I think we should introduce our new friends," Dylan said amusedly. "This is Olivia Ioria, Kat Hightower, and Mackenzie Britten." The girls said hello and were introduced to everyone there. Then the Starkids had to rehearse, so the girls were brought to the room the performers had left their stuff so they would be as surprised by the show as everyone else.

The girls hung out in there all day, singing along when they could hear the music from the stage. Even when they could hear the music, they sang anyway because they didn't really have anything else to do. When the Starkids came in at lunchtime, they were amused to find the girls flopped in random positions around the room and singing. Kat was sprawled out across the entire sofa, with one arm above her head and one leg dangling off. Kenzie was sitting with her back on the wall and hugging her knees to her chest, facing Kat. Olivia was lying on her stomach on the floor with her chin propped on her forearms, facing Kenzie. Olivia and Kat both had their backs to the door, so when it opened, Kat tilted her head back over the arm of the sofa to see who it was. Olivia rolled up onto one arm and raised her head off the ground. When they were told it was time for food, Olivia and Kat immediately sat up straight, causing everyone to laugh. After lunch, the Starkids got time off to relax before the doors opened to select VIP ticket holders at 3, two hours before the show.

During that time, almost everyone slept. Starkids and Marauders alike just sprawled out and slept on each other for over an hour. They were woken by Julia, who had apparently had the foresight to set an alarm. The Starkids quickly fixed their clothes and the girls fixed their makeup.

"So, while you all are out with your crazy fans, what should we do?" Kat asked from where she was still sprawled on the couch. The Starkids looked around at each other and shrugged.

"Well, if we can find some passes or something for you guys, you can go out and mingle with all the other VIP people. Because if you don't have a ticket, they'll kick you out and that would be really unfortunate," Jamie pointed out. Everyone nodded and looked at Julia.

"Why are you all looking at me?" she asked, holding her hands up and looking confused.

"Well, you are the tour director," Brian R. pointed out. "Shouldn't you know things like this?" Julia sighed.

"I'll go poke around and try to find some passes or something for you three," she said with a shake of her head. The three girls yelled a 'thank you' as she left the room. They sat around for another few minutes while Julia was gone and the Starkids moved around the room and made sure they had their phones and whatever else they needed. Like colorful Sharpies to sign stuff with. Each of them had a regular black one, but apparently they'd decided that they needed fun colors too, so each one had another color as well.

Julia slipped back in and came over to the girls with three passes in her hand. She gave one to each girl.

"These are backstage passes. I think they're supposed to be for crew members or something, but I found these three blank ones on a table and took them before anyone came up and claimed them." The three girls laughed and thanked Julia again as they tried to find a place to put the passes where other fans wouldn't notice them. Olivia was the first to give up trying to find a way to inconspicuously put it in a pocket and just stuck it in her shirt. Her friends saw this and immediately copied her. The neckline of the shirts meant that no one would see them, and the fact that they were all wearing tank tops under the shirts meant that the passes wouldn't fall out the bottom. Everyone headed out of the little dressing room thing together, talking and joking cheerfully. Olivia fell in step with Meredith and Lauren and for the beginning of the walk, they talked about how excited they were for the show. When they were just beginning to hear the crowd noise, Lauren abruptly looked Olivia up and down and asked,

"Where on earth is your little pass thing that Julia gave you?" Olivia grinned mischievously.

"In my shirt," she said casually. Both of the older girls started laughing cheerfully, attracting some quizzical looks from everyone else. Olivia offered a borderline cheeky grin to the confused people while Lauren and Meredith tried to stop laughing. When they were close to the door, Kat suddenly appeared in front of her with Kenzie following behind her.

"We probably shouldn't come out the same door as them," Kat pointed out. "We don't want fan rage descending on us or something." Olivia nodded in fervent agreement, and they ducked down a side hallway. They followed this for a while until they came to a door. They pushed it open and were delighted to find that it opened into a short alley on the side of the House of Blues. They headed out into the warm summer air and joined the fans waiting outside.

The meet and greet was more fun than any school event, in Olivia's opinion. Here, everyone knew and loved Starkid, and was willing to jump into a quote war with a random person standing next to them. The Marauders were shocked and flattered when a few people recognized them from their show the night before and asked for autographs. It was Kenzie's idea to sign in their Marauder names, which they promptly agreed to. Kenzie drew little antlers on her signature, Kat drew a paw print at the end of hers, and Olivia drew a crescent moon beside hers. The best part for the three girls was pretending they'd never met the Starkids and fangirling a bit every time they saw one, or one talked to them. The Starkids also got a twinkle in their eye when they realized that the girls were acting like every other fan, and had fun picking out funny poses for pictures.

Meredith suggested a Lord of the Rings pose, so Olivia immediately snapped a branch of a nearby tree and stood brandishing it as a sword with a determined look on her face. Meredith pulled the ring she was wearing off her finger and held it up in front of her face with a wary expression. Kenzie put her hand on Meredith's shoulder in a comforting way, and Kat crouched in the corner of the picture with a scary face, staring at the ring. They managed to corner Joey, Joe, and Brian at once and Brian suggested awkward prom pictures. Joe stood behind Kat and put his hands on her shoulders and leaned away slightly, making a face. Brian and Kenzie switched spots so Kenzie was holding his waist. Joey just picked up Olivia. The nice person who offered to take the picture burst out laughing as Olivia looked around wildly when the ground seemed to spontaneously vanish. She managed to get the picture so Olivia was looking at the camera with an expression of alarm and anger on her face and Joey's face was crinkled up in laughter.

When it got to about forty-five minutes before the show, the Starkids went to go put their costumes on and do their warm-ups. The Marauders mingled among the fans and sand some songs for a while. About fifteen minutes after the Starkids left, the girls figured they should get backstage before someone noticed that they weren't going in the regular door. They waited until almost everyone was occupied singing Goin' Back to Hogwarts, then slipped into the alley they'd found earlier. As they entered the door, they pulled their backstage passes out of their shirts. No one questioned them as they headed down to the dressing room, which they were thankful for. None of them were really in the mood for an argument.

Once they got into the dressing room, Julia basically told them to stand off to the side while the performers got ready. The three girls went and stood in a corner and made no noise and pretended they didn't exist. The Starkids were moving around like a whirlwind, and then they were suddenly gone. The singers and band members just… vanished. Well, that's how it seemed to the girls. After a few seconds they cautiously emerged from their corner and were greeted by one of the crew. He led them to a spot backstage where they could watch the whole show and not be seen by the crowd.

The girls were more than happy with the show. They danced and sang along from backstage, much to the amusement of the crew and other personnel backstage. Of course, for more than half the songs they knew the original dances from the show, so they were dancing around and trying not to hit anything. Once the show was over, the girls cheered along with everyone else before being led back to the dressing room. The Starkids were in there already, congratulating each other on the performance. The girls immediately started showering them with compliments, which the performers tried to shyly wave off.

Once everyone was back in normal clothes, and the costumes were all packed up, they headed out to start packing up equipment. The girls volunteered to help, but Lauren pointed out that it would be weird if three girls suddenly appeared and started helping. So the girls went out and mingled with the fans for a long time. They hung away from the Starkids, around the back of the group, chatting with each other and other fans. It was a good time, and they enjoyed the chance to meet other Starkid fans that they probably never would have met anywhere else.

After hours, all the fans had finally dispersed. The girls were helping to move when Olivia's phone suddenly vibrated loudly from her pocket. She put the equipment she was carrying by the bus and pulled out her phone. She was expecting it to be Ben, whom she'd been texting pretty much all day, so she was surprised to see her uncle's name on the caller ID.

"Hello?" she said, picking up the phone. Joe and Joey walked by, and noted the pleasant expression on her face as she spoke. They put the stuff they were carrying into the bus, along with Olivia's abandoned equipment. When they turned around, shock crossed their faces when they saw Olivia standing stock-still. Her face was paler than a sheet, and she looked to be shaking slightly as she slowly lowered the phone and put it back in her pocket. The two guys tentatively came closer, watching her carefully for any sign of something going wrong.

"Olivia?" Joey asked tentatively. She looked at him, and he was alarmed to see the lost expression in her eyes. She blinked at him, and he could see the tears welling up in her eyes.

"Olivia, is something wrong?" Joey asked urgently. A strangled noise that was a mixture of a choke and a sob broke out of the young woman's throat as her eyes closed and she brought her hands up to her eyes. Her shoulders began shaking with sobs, and a terrible wailing noise was coming from behind the hands that were hiding her face. It was quiet, but it was the most pain-wrought noise the two guys had ever heard, and it made the hair on the back of their necks rise. They looked at each other, and each found their own alarm in the other's face. Olivia raised her eyes to look at them, tears dripping down her face and her face twisted in pain.

"He's gone," she whispered in a broken voice.

"Who?" Joey asked gently. He was aware he was whispering as well, but wasn't entirely sure why. Olivia just looked so… fragile in that moment.

"My grandfather," she croaked out before she began to openly sob again. Joey didn't even think about it as he pulled the girl into a tight hug. He was alarmed when she slumped against him, holding onto him like he would disappear if she let go. He looked at Joe over her head and mouthed 'get the others.' Joe immediately turned and ran back into the building, where everyone else was checking the Hose of Blues one last time to make sure they hadn't forgotten anything.

Joey looked down at the broken girl in his arms and wondered if her life would ever be the same.

* * *

**AN: Well part of this was extremely difficult to write. And that ending was the saddest thing I've ever written. Yep, that was a terrible thing to do to Olivia. I feel bad about doing it… oh well. It needed to happen, which you will understand in a chapter or two. Also, I would like to thank everyone who Favorited this story or is now Following it! Thank you all! I love you!**

**Also, I'm considering writing a story involving the idea of Skylanders. It would be an AU, and it's kind of hard to explain my idea. Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone knows what Skylanders is and would be interested in reading it, if I were to write it. Okay that's it! See you all next chapter!**

**Hugs and butterfly kisses,**

**~Your Moony**


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: Yay, another chapter! I know that these updates have steadily been getting farther and farther apart, and I apologize for that. The first chapters were very easy because the plot was really simple in the beginning. It's been getting progressively harder to remember to include everything I need to as I continue, seeing as I have one of the worst cases of scatter brained-ness ever. Also, I've been putting more stuff in each chapter, so that's taking up some time as well. Just bear with me, the chapters are coming!**

**Also, I just want to warn everyone that I went back to school on the 29th of August, and I'm playing volleyball. Thus, the amount of free time I have to write has drastically decreased. So updates will be even slower, most likely. This time it's not my fault though. Blame high school for that. On to answering my lovely reviewers!**

**azebra117: Yeah, I feel bad for her too. I don't like killing characters… makes me sad. Like I'm killing real people. Except I'm not a killer. Moving on. And yes, she's luckier than I am! I've never seen them live, actually. I just kind of made up everything that happened at the show, based on YouTube videos and my imagination.**

**Pigwidgeon: Thanks! And yes. I think we must have the same soul or something. Maybe, in a past life, we were the same person. But then the soul was somehow split, so we became two people. Like soul sisters! And yay, a crusade against hate! I don't like when people hate on other people, so I am proudly a member of the Pigfarts Club! Oh, and I didn't even think to check the spelling! I know a couple people named Jamie, and they all have the 'i' after the 'm'! Now that I know, I will be sure to spell it correctly. Thank you for telling me it was wrong! P.S. That idea came from my lovely beta who is also my best friend who happens to be the person Kat is based off of. :) *_note from the Beta- OMG YOURE EACH OTHER'S HORCRUXES! YOU WILL NEVER DIE! *_**

**theatre4life: That sounds like a fantastic idea! I almost did it, but then I figured I'd want to slap myself for doing it after about twenty minutes. And I'm glad you like the idea! I wish it would happen… not that it could happen to me, I'm really not a good singer.**

**prongsthemarauder15: Thanks! And I plan to continue. Writing this story makes me happy.**

**PenMagic: Awesome, thanks so much! And I'm glad you like long chapters, because I think the chapters keep getting steadily longer. :)**

**Disclaimer: Once again, I own no songs or shows mentioned. Nor do I own any Starkids because that would be slavery and that's illegal in the United States, where I live.**

* * *

Chapter 6: Pain and Perseverance

The next month and a half or so was hard for the Marauders. Olivia became steadily more closed-off as the days went on, to the point where her mother was so alarmed by her daughter's constant melancholy attitude that she took the young woman to the doctor. The doctor said that he couldn't be sure of anything, and recommended seeing a psychiatrist. That worried Mrs. Ioria even more, but she did as the doctor suggested and brought her daughter to a psychiatrist. There, after a full examination, she was diagnosed with depression.

The news devastated Olivia's parents. Her middle sister, a 16-year-old, understood what was going on as well. She was planning on being a doctor when she grew up, and as such, had read plenty on all manner of diseases and disorders. She was still terrified that her older sister would become suicidal as well, even though Olivia assured her it wasn't even a possibility.

Olivia's youngest sister, an 11-year-old, only knew that her sister was sick. She didn't fully understand what was wrong, but knew that it was something in her sister's brain and that it was the reason Olivia sat alone in her room a lot. She also knew that it was why Olivia didn't seem to have fun doing anything anymore and why the older girl often complained of aches in various limbs and joints.

Olivia tried her best to keep away from everyone. It was something she'd been good at for a long time before her depression, and it was easier now. People left her alone more often than not, and even when they did speak to her she felt how uncomfortable they were. She didn't intentionally shove everyone away, it just sort of happened. The only people who steadfastly remained with her, even when she dropped hints that she wanted them to leave, were her fellow Marauders and, interestingly enough, Ben.

At first, it had been extremely annoying that her friends would refuse to leave her alone when all she wanted to do was sit around, listen to music and sleep. But she slowly got used to it, to the point where she was startled when one of her friends wasn't around. Each of them had their own way of attempting to get Olivia interested in the world again, although no method was really that effective.

Kenzie made it her unofficial job to update Olivia on everything that was going on in the world, seeing as her friend almost never watched the news anymore. She also told Olivia local news, as well as reminding her of things she needed to do, like pack for college and train for volleyball so she wouldn't be behind on her team. Kat made jokes of almost everything in an attempt to get Olivia to laugh. The most she ever got was a little twitch of Olivia's lips that might have passed for a smile. Both of them made sure she did things like shower and go outside sometimes.

Ben tried to help the best he could, but it was a bit different from the girls' help. He was the one who dragged Olivia out to the park or anywhere other than her house, really. He made her listen to the radio and somehow engaged her in conversation. Olivia didn't mind interacting with Ben as much because he didn't treat her any differently now. He still occasionally brought her a coolatta in the morning and still teased her for her height. She appreciated that, and responded better to him as a direct result of that appreciation. Her mom appreciated it as well, seeing as the doctor said the best thing to encourage her recovery was to get her re-interested in things she liked to do before the depression.

The only other things that was really effective in brightening Olivia, though it didn't make her a lot brighter, was talking to the Starkids. They'd found out about her depression when Kat explained the situation to Joe when they were talking on the phone. Soon after, the Starkids made a point to text or call Olivia every day. Most of them would send off a text reminding her of all the good things in life, or all the good things about her. One of her favorites was when Brian sent her a message comprised of nothing but Starkid quotes. Joey texted her almost incessantly, which was annoying at first, then amusing, and now, comforting. They would talk almost all day, unless Olivia was somehow convinced to do something that prevented her from checking her phone, like going to a movie or swimming, or if Joey had work. He was very patient with her when she got frustrated with everyone else, and had a habit of saying random things that made her thoughts stop dead in their tracks in an attempt to process what he had just said. She appreciated Joey's efforts as well, and had told him as much on more than one occasion. He always just sent back a smiley face, and then the conversation would continue as normal.

But overall, Olivia wasn't getting any better. She wasn't getting any worse, but when they went back to the psychiatrist, he flat-out told Mrs. Ioria that her daughter was pretty much the same as when she'd first come in. That was the final straw for Mr. and Mrs. Ioria. They knew that their daughter needed some sort of event or interaction that would remind her why the world was a good place to be. They tried asking her friends for help, but it was quickly realized that her friends had already tried almost everything. It was Kat who came up with the idea, although it was really a joke at first.

Kat, Kenzie, Ben, and Olivia's parents were all at the Iorias' house, trying to come up with some way to help Olivia. The ideas from the younger group had gotten steadily more ridiculous as time went on. At some point, Kenzie got fed up and threw her hands in the air.

"Well, with the way this is going, why don't we just her to Pigfarts!?" she exclaimed. Kat and Ben laughed, while Olivia's parents just looked confused.

"Actually," Kat said thoughtfully once her laughter subsided. "That's not too far off from a real idea Kenz."

"And what idea would that be?" Mrs. Ioria asked tiredly. They'd been trying to come up with something for over two hours now, and the whole endeavor had been going on for over a week.

"We should send her to LeakyCon!" Kat exclaimed. "She'll be surrounded by Harry Potter nerds who will be radiating excitement, and, with luck, the excitement will be contagious!"

"And Starkid is going to be there," Mackenzie chimed in. "And they just announced that they're doing A Very Potter 3D: A Very Potter Senior Year there, so there will be a ton of performers from the group there!"

Olivia's parents practically interrogated Kenzie and Kat for any and all information they had on LeakyCon. Once they had gotten every bit of information they could out of the two girls, Mr. Ioria went upstairs and grabbed Olivia's phone, seeing as his daughter was asleep. He went through her contacts until he found Brian Holden, who the girls had suggested would be a good person to ask about LeakyCon details. Mr. Ioria dialed the number on the house phone and waited while it rang. Halfway through the third ring, Brian picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hi, is this Brian Holden?" Olivia's father asked.

"Yes, may I ask who's calling please?" Brian said politely.

"It's Jim Ioria, Olivia's father. My wife and I just had a few questions about LeakyCon we were hoping you could answer."

"Of course!" Brian exclaimed. "I'd be glad to help if it's something that will help Olivia."

The two men talked for over an hour, ironing out details about, well, everything. But, by the end of the conversation, they had agreed on several things. First, Mr. and Mrs. Ioria were going to send Olivia to Chicago for LeakyCon. Second, Kat and Kenzie were going to be invited as well, and everyone was pretty sure they would come. Third, the three girls would stay with the Starkids while they were in Chicago, which wouldn't just be for Leaky. At the moment, the plan was to have them stay for two weeks.

That day, the parents of the three girls all discussed these plans, and agreed to them. They purchased plane tickets to Chicago for their respective daughters and worked out who was going bring them to and from Logan Airport. Then, each adult went to tell their child what was going on. Mr. and Mrs. Ioria approached Olivia's room and knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" Olivia asked from within, her voice sounding tired.

"Mom and Dad," her father said patiently. "May we come in?"

"Sure," she replied. Her parents entered slowly, and found their daughter lying on her side on her bed. Her back was to the door, and she was clearly trying to show that she wanted to be left alone. Her father sat down behind her and her mom stood beside him.

"We have something we want to ask you," her mother said carefully.

"Ask away," Olivia said dully. "No guarantee that you'll get an answer though."

"Well, your mother and I had an idea, and we think you'll like it. How would you like to go to Chicago for two weeks with Kat and Mackenzie? You'll be going to LeakyCon and staying with your Starkid friends while you're there." Olivia flipped onto her back so she could look at her parents.

"Sounds like fun," she said with actual happiness in her voice for the first time in a long time. Her parents were relieved; the plan to get her back to herself seemed to be right on track. She sat up as they explained the details to her, and she even asked a few questions. Olivia seemed more interested in this than in anything anyone had tried to get her interested in for the past month and a half.

When her parents left, Olivia got up from her bed and curled up in the big, squishy green chair in the corner of her room. There was an ottoman, but she ignored it in favor of squeezing her entire body onto the chair cushion. Her thoughts were, for once, consumed with something other than her grandfather or simple tasks. She grabbed her phone and sent a text to Brian, asking about LeakyCon and what sort of stuff was going on there. She talked with him for a good hour via text messages, before she felt tired and told him she was going to bed. She shut her phone down after receiving a 'good night' text and changed into her pajamas. Suddenly, as she was pulling her pajama shirt over her head, a wave of guilt struck her. She had just had a sudden flashback to the last time she'd seen Starkid; it was also the last time she'd seen her grandfather alive. Now her thoughts about seeing them again were in turmoil. As she curled up in her bed, she considered everything about the upcoming trip.

_Well, _she thought as she felt herself drifting off. _It's either going to be the most amazing thing ever or it's going to suck royal hippogriff._

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o

On August 8th, the three Marauders were brought to Logan Airport by Olivia's parents. Mr. and Mrs. Ioria weren't allowed to the gate, so they said their goodbyes before security. The girls headed through together, walking through the metal detectors. Olivia's belt set it off, and she almost had to go through a pat down, until she pointed out the belt and took it off. She walked through again and passed, thankfully. She really didn't want to have some airport security guy poking and prodding her in an attempt to find non-existent weapons.

Once through security, the girls stopped at Dunkin' Donuts and got bagels. For dinner. They ate the bagels as they walked to the gate, chatting amicably. With the impending trip, Kat and Kenzie had watched Olivia slowly come out of her shell a bit. She offered tentative smiles, occasionally, and actually participated in discussions. They had yet to hear her laugh, but figured the Starkids could help with that.

The Marauders sat in front of their gate and ate their bagels as they waited to be told to board the plane. Conversation flowed more naturally then it had in a long time, and each girl was secretly pleased about this. Olivia didn't realize how much she missed just sitting around and talking with her friends until now. The girls were chatting excitedly about AVPSY when the boarding call sounded.

They rose from their seats and headed to the plane. They boarded, where they were greeted by some overly cheery flight attendants. The girls wandered down the aisle until they found their seats. Olivia practically dove into the window seat, and Kenzie was right behind her to grab the middle, which meant Kat was stuck with the aisle seat. She wasn't too happy about this, and jokingly complained until the attendants started talking about the safety rules and such. Then she was told to shut up by a flight attendant, although the lady said it in a much more polite way.

The flight wasn't too bad. Olivia mostly listened to her iPod, wrote in her notebook, did Sudoku, or listened to her friends talking. When it got to a point where they were all listening to their iPods, they passed the notebook back and forth, quoting Starkid and playing the doodle game on it. The doodle game entailed someone drawing an original doodle. The next person tried to kill it. The third person tried to kill the second person's doodle. And so on and so forth, until someone used a nuke and destroyed everything. That game was really what entertained them for the vast majority of the flight. They tried to incorporate everything they were fans of into the doodles, so there was one point where Fire Lord Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender was facing off with Thorn from the Inheritance Cycle.

Towards the end of the flight, they did have to put the wonderful notebook away and shut down their iPods and other electronics. They chatted for the last half hour or twenty minutes while they felt themselves descending. Olivia always got nervous at takeoff and landing, so her friends kept her distracted by signing Super Friends very loudly. People around them were looking at them like they were insane, but the best moment for the girls was when one of the flight attendants passed by and sang "I wanna meet the Dali Lama!" with them. They gave her high-fives as they disembarked. As they stepped into O'Hare International Airport, Kenzie seemed to be struck with a sudden thought.

"Hey guys," she said. "Is someone picking us up from here? Or are we renting a car?" Olivia frowned.

"I have no idea. I can text Brian, if you want," she offered, pulling her phone out of her pocket and turning it on.

"No need," Kat said suddenly.

"Why not?" Kenzie asked. Kat pointed over in the direction of the terminal exit. Even from where they were standing, the three girls could see the huge form of Jim Povolo standing there, making his way in their general direction. The girls walked over too, and met him in the middle. They were delighted to see that he was not alone, but had brought Joe Walker and Brian Holden with him. Hugs and greetings were exchanged, and the boys began walking to the baggage pick-up thing as they caught up. Olivia didn't have much to offer on this topic, so she mostly remained silent as she walked between Brian and Jim.

The baggage claim was an interesting affair, seeing as there were people milling about everywhere. The Marauders actually knew their flight number (which was a miracle, seeing as they usually had terrible memories) so they walked along the rows of turntable things until they found the correct one. There was no baggage out yet, so they waited patiently with the other people from the flight. All at once, a river of luggage exploded down the chute and hit the rotating conveyor belt. The girls bounded up to look for their bags. Kenzie found hers first and attempted to drag it off the belt, although it was apparently stuck or too heavy because she couldn't manage it. Brian came over and helped her lift it off. Kat saw hers next, but it was several feet away when she pointed it out. Joe, who was closer, stretched over and pulled it off the belt with ease. Olivia had to wait for another five minutes until she finally saw her own bright red suitcase. Naturally, it was completely across the belt from her, and she wasn't quite tall enough to reach. She was seriously debating jumping up onto the conveyor belt in an attempt to grab it when Jim appeared next to her out of nowhere (seriously, how had she missed him?) and stretched out to grab it for her. He carried it over to where the others were, even though she tried to take it about six times.

From there, they headed out of the airport. They were all joking and laughing, except Olivia. But the blonde was actually smiling, which everyone counted as a success. Brian led them to his car, and they threw the luggage in the trunk. Brian hopped in the driver's seat, with Jim beside him, and everyone else in the back. The girls practically stuck their faces to the windows as they drove through the city. They'd never been to Chicago before, and they were extremely curious about it. The drive to Starkid Manor felt extremely short, although Olivia was pretty sure it was because they were so involved with looking around at everyone and everything.

As the car pulled up in front of the house, the girls excitedly unbuckled their seatbelts and practically flew out of the car as soon as it had been shut off. Kat and Kenzie were dancing around with obvious excitement and joy, while Olivia stood off to one side, smiling slightly at her friends' antics. The guys unloaded all the luggage from the car, and the girls tried to bring it inside, but the guys refused to relinquish their grips. Brian opened the door to the manor and held it open for the girls to walk inside.

As soon as they stepped inside, the three girls were met by an over excited Lauren. She bounced around them, a huge smile, shouting out questions.

"Hi! I'm so excited that you're here, are you excited? How was your flight? Did you find the guys okay at the airport? Do you like Chicago so far?" Kenzie was laughing with Kat, and Olivia's face was split with a grin.

"Lauren, calm down!" Brian exclaimed as he came in and closed the door. "You're going to scare them!"

"It's okay Brian, we don't mind," Kenzie said through bouts of giggles. "In answer to your questions; yes, we are excited; our flight was fine; yes, we found them quite easily because Jim is huge; and yes, Chicago seems like a great place so far."

For a while, everyone just sat around and talked, until they got a phone call. Matt picked it up and listened intently for a few seconds, before his face split into a wide grin. He said a couple of generic phrases into the phone before saying goodbye and hanging up.

"Well, that was Joey. Everyone's at the hotel, if you guys feel like heading over," Matt said casually. Everyone immediately leapt up and flew around the house in an attempt to find shoes and purses and sunglasses and wallets and whatever else everyone was trying to find. Olivia stood patiently by the door, purple Converse already on, waiting for everyone else. Once the whole group was standing eagerly by the door, Matt led them all outside.

Next came the problem of who would ride in which car. After a mere twenty minutes of discussion that was really twenty minutes of arguing, it was decided. Olivia, Joe, Jim, Nick, Lauren, Denise, and Matt would go in Matt's car. Everyone else would go in Brian's car. Olivia spent the entire ride grinning as everyone in her car, save herself, sang along to a Disney CD Jim found in the glove box. Lauren tried to encourage her to sing by singing directly to her, but she quietly shook her head. Smiling she could definitely do now. Singing… well, that was a little much. Lauren looked a little disappointed, but nodded in an understanding way and backed off.

Upon arriving at the hotel, everyone jumped out of Matt's car still singing I'll Make a Man Out of You. Everyone from the other car immediately joined in, creating a mass of singing young adults bounding into the hotel lobby. They only stopped once one of the hotel employees came and yelled at them for disturbing people. The group immediately went silent and proceeded to walk to the elevators without making a sound. They headed up to the correct floor and went to the correct room. Matt knocked on the door, and it was flung open to reveal a grinning Britney Coleman. She ushered everyone into the room, which was full of grinning, chatting, and the occasional singing Starkids.

Everyone was introduced to the Marauders, and everyone seemed to take a liking to them pretty much instantly. The rest of the day was spent talking, laughing, and singing, seeing as it was about 8:30 PM when the Marauders arrived. By about 10, most everyone was lying on top of each other, and the chatter was flowing more slowly. Olivia looked around and saw Kat curled against Joe Walker, both of them looking sleepy, Britney and Tyler grinning about something they were looking at on an iPhone, Kenzie talking quietly with AJ and jabbing at things on a piece of paper (Olivia thought it must be music), and everyone else either talking softly to the people around them or sleeping. She, sitting more away from the main group and more in the shadows, stood and silently slipped outside through the glass sliding door, onto a small balcony.

It was dark outside, but the lights from the city still shone brightly. She could see a scattered few people hurrying down the sidewalk, clearly uneasy with the darkness. Olivia leaned on the railing and smiled slightly. Even before her depression, darkness was her friend. She adored being the dark; it made her feel safer. She didn't always rely on her eyes, even when it was light outside. Her hearing was pretty good, and this helped contribute to her lack of fear when it came to darkness. She'd always thought of the darkness as a blanket that wrapped around her, protecting her from the illusions that her eyes showed her. Eyes could lie, but ears nearly always rang true.

Olivia looked out over the city. It wasn't her home, it wasn't even close to her home, but at that moment, the young woman felt more at home there than she had in Concord. Here, everyone acted as though nothing had changed. Starkid was still Starkid; they still sang songs and made jokes and laughed with each other. Everyone treated her like a human instead of a glass sculpture, which she greatly appreciated. In Concord, she felt as though each person she talked to tried to carefully structure the conversation in a way they thought would stay on neutral topics, like the weather. Here, no one was afraid to start arguing about ice cream flavors and politics or shout out jokes that her mother would have killed her for grinning at. Olivia missed being able to do that with her friends. She missed the normality of her old life, of when she'd been able to pick up the phone and call her grandfather to ask if he wanted to spend the day with her. The times when she'd been able to laugh loudly and freely at a silly joke one of her friends told. The times when she'd actually felt something. Now, in order to save herself from the pain of trying to deal with the loss of her grandfather, she'd locked up all her emotions – even the good ones. She become a rock; steadfast and strong, but also cold and uncaring. And she felt herself becoming more and more gray as the days went on. Before, she'd been a bright ball of joy and emotion; now, the only colors for her were gray, black, and blue. Like a bruise.

Olivia frowned as she internally compared herself to a bruise. But she knew that it was actually a very accurate comparison. First, there was an injury to cause the bruise – that would be her grandfather's death. Then the bruise sticks around for a while and is very tender and sensitive until it finally goes away. She was well aware that her bruise had never gone away because she had never let it become tender and sensitive. Instead, she tried to forget it ever happened.

The soft sound of the glass door sliding open startled Olivia out of her melancholy thoughts. Her head snapped around and she saw Joey sliding the door closed behind him as he stepped onto the balcony. As soon as the door clicked shut, Olivia felt a slight panic well up in her throat. One thing she was almost never willing to do was talk about her feelings, and the fact that she was now alone with Joey made her fear that he was going to try and get her to open up.

But much to her surprise, Joey just leaned against the railing next to her and looked out over the city.

"Beautiful night," he said softly. She looked at him.

"That sounds like a line to start a romantic interaction from a cheesy romance movie," Olivia deadpanned, which made him start to laugh, loudly and brightly. A grin tugged up the corners of her mouth too, and it widened slightly when he looked over at her with his eyes sparkling.

"Even when you're not supposed to be funny, you're funnier than almost everyone I know," he said with a shake of his head, still grinning. Olivia felt a light blush dust across her cheeks.

"Oh please. The Langs write comedy for a living. Meredith and Joe Moses perform stand-up that people pay to see. I think they beat me in terms of being funny."

"Hey, I did say almost everyone," Joey pointed out. "Besides, they're trained in that stuff, and the Langs have years of experience. You just blurt out the funniest stuff sometimes. It just comes out of nowhere!"

"Well, thanks, I guess," Olivia said as she turned her attention back to the city still glowing with activity. She didn't see Joey frown at her.

"What's wrong?" Joey question echoed in Olivia's ears and bounced through her brain. She felt an inexplicable anger at the question, even though the logical part of her told her it was meant in a concerned way. She turned to him, eyes blazing like bright blue flames.

"What's wrong? What's wrong!? Every goddamn thing is wrong! My grandfather is dead, my parents think I'm beyond saving, one sister thinks I'm going to go suicidal, the other doesn't even know what's wrong with me and skips around asking me to play dolls, my friends aren't sure what to do with me because they're afraid that I'll shatter into a million pieces if they say or do something 'wrong', I can hardly get out of bed half the time, and I have to go to college in less than a month! I'm supposed to go play volleyball as a _starter _for the team in less than a month, and I can barely finish the conditioning routine I've been doing all summer! And what do my parents do about all this? They ship me off to Chicago, to let someone else deal with my obvious psychological problems instead of trying to fix it themselves! Even when I was in Concord, they just let my friends try to get me re-interested in the world! All they did was make sure I was fed and showered! They don't care, my two sisters are afraid to go near me, and my friends are afraid that I'll break like a piece of glass! All I want is to be treated like a human again." Olivia started out the rant shouting and clearly angry, but the anger slowly morphed into sadness and despair as she continued. By the end, she had collapsed on the ground in exhaustion, sobbing and holding her face in her hands.

Joey slowly knelt beside her and hesitantly pulled her into his arms. He was expecting her to fight furiously against him, so he was startled when she slumped against him, still crying. He held her and rubbed her back while she cried, gently trying to soothe her.

"Just let it all out," he murmured softly. "It's okay. I've got you." She had wound her arms around his neck and her sobs seemed to be softening to hiccups and sniffles. Olivia was a bit startled at her own emotional outburst. She hadn't cried like that since… since her grandfather's funeral actually. She slowly pulled her face away from Joey's shoulder and looked up into his face. His brown eyes were warm with concern as he looked down at her. She blinked rapidly to stall a few more tears, even though one or two slipped out anyway. She was now sitting across from Joey on the balcony, their knees touching as they sat cross-legged on the cold ground. Her hands had fallen into her lap while his were gently holding her arms, just above her elbows. She moved her hand as if to wipe away the tears trickling slowly down her cheeks, but was startled when Joey's hand gently brushed them away. Now she had no idea what to say.

"Um, I'm sorry I got your shirt all wet," she muttered shyly as she stared into her lap.

"It's okay. I do own more than one shirt you know," Joey replied. Olivia could hear the tiny grin in his voice, but couldn't bring herself to smile in return. She felt one of his warm hands leave her left arm, and was a bit startled when his fingers gently brushed her chin. Her heart skipped about five beats at his gentle, almost hesitant touch. He tapped the bottom of her chin lightly, clearly asking her to raise her head. She hesitated, then slowly looked up at him. Her heart was pounding against her ribs, and she was suddenly very aware of how close together they were sitting.

As she looked up at Joey, she saw his face was muddled with a multitude of emotions. There were the ones she expected, like concern and warmth. But there was also a sadness she hadn't expected, as well as something unreadable deep in his eyes. She was very aware of the fact that their knees were pressed together and that his hand was now cradling her face. His eyes were flicking over her, as if making sure she was still in one piece.

"I'm sorry."

Olivia blurted out the words before she could stop herself. She saw the confusion appear on his face, and felt his hand move away from her cheek. His other hand vanished from her right arm, and she felt the cold spot where it had been. She did not expect him to take both her hands in his and look at her kindly.

"You have nothing to be sorry for," he said gently.

"Yes I do. I yelled at you and I raged about my problems that you don't need to hear because you have your own life. I don't need to burden you with my issues when you probably have some of your own. It was completely uncalled for and I'm sorry," she blurted out. She wanted to smack herself for rambling on. _God, I must have word vomit problems today or something, _she thought to herself. A smug little voice from the back of her mind, one that sounded suspiciously like Kat, whispered, _You didn't have this problem with anyone but Joey! _She internally smacked herself for the thought and refocused on Joey, who was looking at her with so much warmth in his gaze, she honestly swore she felt herself warming up.

"Let's face it, I kind of asked for it," he pointed out. "I came out here and disturbed your peace. Then I started asking you questions when you clearly weren't in a talking mood. I should be apologizing to you." Olivia vehemently shook her head at his words.

"No, I'm glad you came out. I wouldn't have ever been in a talking mood and I never would have gotten that out if you hadn't made me angry. So thank you. I wouldn't say I'm cured, not by a long shot, but I think… I think that everyone's going to find me a bit more interested in the world now." Joey's whole face lit up with excitement at her words.

"Does that mean that you'll come to rehearsal and everything with us tomorrow? And sing and dance and shit?" Olivia smiled amusedly.

"If you want me to, sure. I don't see why not." A huge grin split Joey's face and he gently squeezed her hands. Olivia felt her own smile growing slightly.

"I'm glad you came you know," he said softly, almost shyly. Olivia felt her cheeks heat up a bit and she looked down at her hands, still enclosed safely in his.

"I'm glad I came too," she said equally softly. She looked up to find him looking at with the gentlest expression she'd ever seen on his face. He gently tugged at her hands and started to move.

"Come on, we'd better get inside. We do need to get some sleep tonight." Olivia nodded silently in agreement, not really trusting herself to speak. She stood slowly, making sure that she was really okay. He watched her carefully, and gently offered an arm for her to hold when her legs, stiff from the cold balcony, almost gave out beneath her. She leaned on him as they walked slowly back into the hotel room. What they found made them both smile softly and affectionately.

Kat had fallen asleep with her head on Joe's chest, and his arm was curled protectively around her where they were lying on the floor. Britney and Tyler were asleep next to each other, and Jim was sprawled across they couch they were leaning on. AJ and Mackenzie had fallen asleep on the music; Kenzie's head was resting on a stack of papers and AJ's was on his keyboard. Just about everyone else was using another person for a pillow – Olivia was pretty sure that she saw Lauren with her head on Nick Lang's stomach and her feet propped up in Devin's lap. She was also pretty sure that Devin's head was on Brian Rosenthal's chest, but she wasn't positive.

Olivia and Joey tiptoed around their sleeping friends until the finally made it to the beds on the other side of the room. Problem was, there were only two beds, and one was occupied. Dylan was lying flat on his back on one side of the bed, while Matt Lang was curled up on the other. Olivia looked up at Joey, who seemed to be processing the fact that there was only one bed left (the Starkids did have another room, but it wasn't attached to this one, and they didn't know where the room key was), and then over to the remaining bed, before looking back at Joey. He looked down at her and leaned closer, which made both her heart and breathing stutter. He put his mouth next to her ear and whispered,

"You can take the bed; I'll sleep on the floor." Olivia felt a chill run down her spine as his breath tickled her ear, but ignored it in favor of responding.

"Don't be ridiculous. You take one half of the bed and I'll take the other." He pulled back and looked at her with raised eyebrows. She shrugged and gestured towards the general blob of people lying on top of each other on the floor. He looked over at the people on the floor before turning back to her and nodding.

Olivia went into the bathroom first. She quickly brushed her teeth with an unopened, disposable toothbrush that she was pretty sure came complimentary with the room. She washed her face and left, making sure everything was back in its place. Joey slipped by her into the bathroom, leaving her to choose which side of the bed to sleep on. She didn't even hesitate as she crawled all the way over to the right side, which was against a wall. She wiggled under the blankets and laid on her right side, facing the wall. She felt the bed shift a moment later, presumably as Joey lied down as well. She felt a tug on the covers as he slipped under, followed by something that felt like a toe poking her in the left calf. She immediately flipped onto her left side and saw Joey looking at her sheepishly.

"Sorry," he whispered. "I was trying to get comfortable."

"It's okay," she whispered back. Although she wouldn't show it, she was a little uncomfortable with Joey curled up beside her. She didn't mind cuddling on a couch or sitting on the floor, but being in a bed brought a strange level of intimacy that she'd never experienced before. She'd had boyfriends, of course, but had never slept in a bed with anyone other than a family member. And that was when necessary, such as when they had slept over her grandparents' when they were younger and there hadn't been enough beds.

Just by looking at him, Olivia could tell Joey was uncomfortable as well. Trying to ease some of the awkwardness, she rolled back onto her right side so they weren't awkwardly staring at each other. A moment later, his soft voice broke the silence.

"Goodnight Olivia," he whispered. She smiled to herself at his tentative tone.

"Goodnight Joey," she whispered back. She settled down and closed her eyes. As she drifted off to sleep she was thinking, not about her grandfather, as she usually did, but about how sending to her Chicago might have been the best idea her parents had ever come up with.

* * *

**AN: Phew! I just wrote about 6 pages on Microsoft Word of this chapter in one day! But I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It ended where I wanted it to, which is always a plus. And some of Olivia's inner struggles/problems were revealed! Yay! Well, not really, but we're learning about her, which is good. I think that will continue. There's some other stuff about her, like why she's so shy and uncomfortable around guys, that I'm thinking I'll probably explain. So let me know what you think!**

**Also, my beta suggested that I post this. I am on Pottermore, and I don't know if any of you are as well, but feel free to friend me! I am MoonstoneWild6291, who is a Ravenclaw, as well as ElmGhost24109, who is a Slytherin. My beta would like to tell you that she is SpellCat196 and FelicisRain22977. I know that SpellCat is a Slytherin, but I'm not sure about FelicisRain. So yeah. That's all for today! I love you all and thank you so much for sticking with this as I struggle to get these chapters out quickly because of school and sports! See you next chapter!**

**Hugs and butterfly kisses,**

**Your Moony 3**


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: Wow, thanks for all the positive feedback guys! You're all so great. You say nice things to me and give me constructive criticism that I really appreciate. I had one person tell me that this is the best story they've ever read. I was honored. And I promise, I'm working to get these chapters out to you as fast as possible, but both my beta and I are really busy with life right now, so it's a little tricky. Now, to answer my lovely and fantastic reviewers!**

**azebra117: Wow, that is weird. Maybe it's a sign… although I have no idea what it would be a sign of. And yes, poor Olivia. :( But you're right, Joey is a nice guy. At least, I'm making him out to be one, and I'm sure he's quite nice in real life too.**

**Smfah girl: Actually, I have no idea what you're talking about. My Beta and I came up with that name on our own.**

**PenMagic: Thanks! And I went and did all the chapters on my Ravenclaw account and it was so fun! I'll have to do them on my Slytherin account too. And are you kidding me!? Who would do that? I'm pretty sure that if people wanted spoilers, there would be plenty of chat about it at various fan chat locations, like Tumblr. I'm upset with whoever did that because I'm pretty sure the Starkids don't want the cast list getting out before it's out on YouTube, so that person disrespected them. At least, they did in my opinion. And as for your questions… well, you'll have to read to find out! :) And thank you for the luck. I appreciate it.**

**QueenAnneMagic: Thanks! And I envy them too, and they came from my brain. XD**

**Pigwidgeon: I totally know the feeling. And you're very welcome! Updating makes me happy too, and I'm glad that you liked it! And the more I re-read what I'd written about her, the more comfortable I was with how she turned out. So thanks for saying that. :) And that's so crazy! We're definitely soul sisters/horcruxes. It's now a fact. ;)**

**Hogwarts2312: Yeah… I felt like he would be kind of cute and adorable. Like a puppy. Joey's a puppy. XD And I feel bad for Olivia too, but I think I might make things a little better for her. Maybe. ;)**

**Disclaimer: Once again, I do not own any Starkids because that's still illegal. And weird. Nor do I own any of their shows or music, or any other shows and music, because I'm not that talented.**

*****IMPORTANT NOTE: THIS CHAPTER WILL NOT CONTAIN ANY AVPSY SPOILERS BECAUSE I HAVEN'T SEEN AVPSY AND KNOW NOTHING ABOUT IT EXCEPT THE OBVIOUS. DON'T WORRY. NO SPOILERS. THAT IS ALL.*****

Chapter 7: The Stone-Like Heart and the Off-Balance Mind

The next morning, Olivia was awoken suddenly after having a nightmare. She blinked blearily as she tried to settle her nerves and recall the bad dream. She slowly managed to piece together that it had involved falling. She was pretty sure that someone had pushed her, but wasn't positive. All she knew was that she was trembling slightly from terror as she started to become aware of her surroundings.

The plain beige wall of the hotel room was slightly illuminated by sunlight that was just peeking past the thick curtain that covered the slider. She could hear soft snores from the other, sleeping inhabitants of the room and smiled slightly at the gentle noise. Her blankie, a small, soft blanket she'd had since she was a baby, was resting near her head, and she was glad of its presence. The blanket and sheets on the bed were down by her waist; she figured that she must have kicked them off sometime during the night because she was too warm.

At this point, she realized that she was indeed very warm, which didn't make a lot of sense, considering she was wearing shorts and a t-shirt, and the blanket and sheets weren't covering her. She couldn't even blame her blankie, because that was in a ball beside her head. She raised her head slightly to look down at her torso, trying to see why she was so warm. Needless to say, she was extremely alarmed when she saw a long, lanky arm wrapped securely around her stomach. She also realized that what she thought had been her pillow was actually another arm, and at this point she was getting alarmed. That is, until Olivia remembered that she'd been too tired to argue with Joey about one of them sleeping on the floor and the other on the bed, which meant she'd just suggested that both of them sleep on the bed. Apparently, he'd actually done as she suggested, because she had no idea why someone else's arms would be around her at this point.

Olivia was torn. She wanted to either flip over and make sure it was Joey, or wiggle out of his arms. She knew that trying to get away would probably wake him up, and she would feel bad if she woke him up. But she didn't want to flip over because, honestly, lying face to face with a guy in a bed was a little too suggestive for her liking. For a moment, she considered the possibility of just lying there and trying to go back to sleep. She knew that wasn't going to work though, seeing as it was a rare day when she could fall back into blissful sleep after being fully alert for more than a few seconds.

Torn with indecision, Olivia remained stone-like as she desperately tried to think of an appropriate way to diffuse the situation. She definitely didn't want anyone else to wake up and see this, because that would lead to a lot of questions she didn't want to answer. She also didn't need a bunch of crazy fangirls trying to kill her because she got to snuggle, albeit unintentionally, with Joey Richter. Not that any of the fangirls would be able to get in here to see them, but she wouldn't put it past either Brian or Lauren or any of them really to post a picture of herself and Joey snuggling on Twitter or Facebook or Tumblr.

Just as she was about to gently move his arm away from her waist, she felt the bed shift behind her. Once again, she froze, statue-like, and waited for something to happen. Much to her surprise, she felt Joey's arm tighten around her waist. This was almost immediately followed by a quiet gasp; she could only assume that he'd woken up and actually looked at her, which had led him to realize whom he was snuggling with so tightly. She decided that now would be a good time to let him know he was awake.

Olivia shifted slightly away from Joey and flipped herself over so that she was face to face with him. Somewhere in the back of her mind, the girly part of her registered that he was freaking _adorable _with his hair all mussed up from sleep and a mixture of confusion and surprise on his face. She shoved the thought away and managed a tiny smile at him. He smiled back with his crooked smile and loosened his arm around her.

"Morning," he whispered. "I didn't wake you, did I?" Olivia shook her head.

"No, I was actually awake before you," she whispered back. "I was going to ask you the same thing." Joey laughed softly.

"Nope, you didn't. I was having a great dream where I lived in a world of chocolate and food and everything was edible. I loved it. Unfortunately, as soon as I started on a mountain of cake, I woke up." Olivia laughed softly.

"Sorry about that," she whispered softly. He shook his head.

"It's not your fault. Did you sleep well?" he asked. She shrugged.

"As well as I ever do. I only woke up twice." Seeing the puzzled look on his face, she elaborated.

"Usually, I wake up multiple times during the night, either from nightmares or just waking up spontaneously. I only had one nightmare last night, which is a first. And now, we should probably get up before someone else wakes up and gets the wrong idea." Joey nodded his agreement, and rolled out of the bed, his feet hitting the floor quietly. He walked unsteadily to the bathroom, which made her chuckle softly. She slipped out of bed as well, and padded silently to the bag with a change of clothes she'd brought to the hotel. She pulled out her rainbow sweatshirt and yanked it over her head. The hotel room was cold, seeing as someone had decided to turn the air-conditioning on full-blast the night before.

Over the next hour, hour and a half, everyone woke up. Some, like Kat and Joe, had to be shaken awake. And even as they tried to shake them awake, both of them groaned and tried to wiggle away and go back to sleep. Others, like AJ, sat up, blinking and cursing under their breath, as soon as the curtains were drawn back. It only took two hours, but everyone was finally ready to leave the hotel and head for their rehearsal space at LeakyCon.

The next few days at Leaky were amazing for everyone. Olivia, Kat, and Kenzie were free to go to any panels and performances that they wanted, and did attend quite a few. They also went to each and every Starkid event, and were startled when a few people recognized them as 'those girls who sang Starkid songs at that concert thing!' They went to the sing-along, the Q&A, and, of course, AVP3D: AVPSY. The Starkids managed to get them into front-row seats, which made the whole experience that much better. On August 12, the last day of LeakyCon, it suddenly seemed to hit all of the Starkids that they probably wouldn't be together like this ever again. They were up in the hotel room when it happened.

Everyone had been catching up, talking about what they'd been doing recently, jobs they were trying to get, things like that. At the same moment, the group as a whole seemed to come to the realization that everyone had different homes now, and that this might be the last time they were all together. Suddenly there was a lot of hugging and crying as people (mostly girls) sobbed over the fact that they might not see each other for a very long time.

Olivia had come to a similar realization mere moments before the group, and she could feel tears beginning to spill over and drip down her face. For a few seconds, she was just sitting and hugging herself as she cried. And then there were arms around her, and she turned and saw Lauren holding her tightly. The only thing Olivia could think to do was hug the tiny girl back. And then there were more arms, around both of them, and Olivia vaguely realized that there must be some sort of group hug, with her and Lauren in the center.

It was then that Olivia finally realized something very important. Yes, her grandfather was gone, and, yes, he was never coming back. Yes, he had been leaving after visiting her when he'd gotten into the accident. But none of that made it her fault. She remembered the police saying that another driver had hit him, not that her grandfather had hit anyone else or lost control or anything that would imply that he could have somehow changed the situation. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, which didn't mean that she could have saved him.

Olivia felt her tears begin anew as relief spread through her body. She knew, somewhere in her heart, that she was finally coming to terms with what had happened. And she also knew that, no matter what, her friends would be here for her through it all. She felt Lauren pull away, and pulled back as well to find Lauren looking at her.

"Are you okay?" she asked, clearly concerned. Olivia nodded, a watery smile on her face.

"I'm good," she said, knowing that it was finally true. "I'm okay now."

And Lauren, as well as everyone else, just smiled back.

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

The next day, almost all of the Starkids who didn't live in Chicago and hadn't gone home yet, had to leave. Olivia was fully prepared for a day full of hugs and crying, and was not disappointed. By the end of the day, almost everyone save the Chicago Starkids was gone and everyone remaining had red-rimmed eyes. They had driven to the airport and back four times, and it was 5 o'clock at night.

Olivia had skipped going on the last airport run, which had left about a half hour ago. She was simply too tired to deal with the emotions that always ran high there. Instead, she said her goodbyes at the Manor before retreating to her room and grabbing a light coat and her guitar. She headed up to the roof, where she settled down in a spot that was more shielded from the wind then the open concrete that comprised most of the top of the structure. She sat down, resting her back against one of the short walls that surrounded the roof. Picking up her guitar, she strummed out a few chords. She looked around, making sure that no one else was up here, and began to sing.

"Look at me," she started softly. "I can never pass for a perfect bride, or a perfect daughter. Can it be I'm not meant to play this part? Now I see that if I were truly to be myself, I would break my family's heart." She strummed out louder and began to sing louder as well.

"Who is that girl I see, staring straight back at me? Why is my reflection someone I don't know? Somehow I cannot hide who I am, though I've tried. When will my reflection show who I am inside?" She hit a powerful chord, and then lowered the volume of both her strumming and her singing.

"When will my reflection show who I am inside?" Olivia bowed her head as she strummed the last chord, sighing softly to herself. Much to her surprise, she head quiet, lonely clapping and her head snapped up to look around the roof. Off to her right and a couple of paces away stood Joey, clapping slowly.

"What are you doing up here?" Olivia asked, sounding a bit hostile.

"Looking for you," Joey replied honestly. "We just ordered pizza and it should be here any minute. Kat and Kenzie wanted to make sure you ate, so I volunteered to check up here when you weren't in your room."

"Oh," was the only reply Olivia could think of.

"That was really good, by the way," Joey added, gesturing to her guitar. "It's from _Mulan_, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it is," Olivia replied. "It's one of my favorite Disney songs."

"Well, you sang it really well," Joey restated firmly.

"Thanks," she replied simply.

"Now come on, or there won't be any pizza left for you," Joey said with a grin. Olivia smiled as well and took the hand he offered her and pulled herself up. The sudden motion made her a little dizzy, and she stumbled slightly to the side. She was a bit startled when she felt a pair of warm hands on her hips, steadying her gently.

"Whoa there," Joey said, and she could see the concern on his face. "Are you gonna pass out on me or something?" Olivia shook her head.

"No, no, I just stood up too fast. And that made me dizzy," she explained, stuttering slightly. She was overly conscious of his hands, which were still on her hips, and the way his breath skimmed over her face. His expression had changed to something rather peculiar that she couldn't identify. One of his hands left her hips and she held her breath as she felt his fingers gently brush her jaw. She felt her eyes flutter closed at the sensation of his warm fingers on her cold skin, and she could feel her heart beating faster with anticipation. Joey's warm breath rushed over her freezing cold nose and sent tingles down her spine. She felt and heard Joey move, when a voice echoed up the stairwell.

"Joey, Olivia, are you coming? The pizza's here!" Olivia had never been so upset to hear Matt's voice. She opened her eyes in time to see Joey sigh and look down at his feet.

"Yeah, we're coming right now," Joey called back. He looked back to her, an apology in his eyes. Olivia just shook her head, telling him it wasn't his fault. He smiled slightly and gestured for her to head down the stairs. She did so and heard Joey close the door behind them. When she saw Matt waiting for them at the bottom, she had to resist and urge to smack him on the top of the head. Instead, she gave a small smile as she passed him to put her guitar away. Once the guitar was back in her room, she headed out to eat pizza with her friends.

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

The next day, Olivia woke up to find there was no one else in her room. She rolled onto her side, all too aware of the silence and emptiness surrounding her. Pulling the blankets closer around her neck, she thought about her time in Chicago so far. Leaky had been fun and almost surreal, with all the kind Harry Potter fans everywhere. Then there was yesterday, which had been full of turbulent emotions, particularly at the end. She flipped onto her other side as she thought about her encounter with Joey the night before.

It had been pleasant, to say the least, she thought. Joey was a good guy, and he was certainly nice to her. But kissing… she wasn't sure what to think of that. It was true that she could feel herself getting better, coming out of her depression. The sadness that had invaded every corner of her being since the news of her grandfather's death was slowly receding from her heart. But that should not be taken to mean that she was ready for a relationship of any sort. Relationships involve trust, and Olivia trusted Joey well enough; it was herself that she had a problem with. She couldn't trust herself to not self-destruct at any moment; she'd been to the psychologist enough to know that her mind was very unstable and any sense of improvement could very well fall apart at the first sign of trouble. No, there was no way that she could be trusted to maintain a relationship in this mental state.

With that choice made, Olivia rolled out of bed and padded out of her room and into the kitchen. There, she found Kat, Joe, Kenzie, and Brian sitting and drinking juice and milk, respectively. She mumbled a good morning to them, which was returned by all four of the people in the kitchen. She went to the refrigerator and poured herself a glass of milk. She settled down on a kitchen chair beside Kat, who bumped her shoulder playfully in greeting.

"Morning Liv," she said cheerfully. Olivia grunted in response, prompting chuckles from everyone else.

"A little grumpy in the morning?" Brian asked playfully.

"Just a little," Olivia muttered back, earning more chuckles. "Morning means I have to do stuff. Mornings and I have a feud." Everyone laughed harder at the Starship reference as Olivia took a sip of her milk.

The group spent breakfast talking about what they were going to do that day and joking about anything that came to mind. Olivia was relaxed as she nibbled on a bagel and listened to the conversation flowing around her. Seeing as she wasn't saying a word, she was the first one to hear the footsteps in the hallway. She looked up and saw, much to her surprise, Joey coming down the hall. He walked into the kitchen, and everyone called out greetings. He waved back as he poured himself a cup of coffee and came over to the table. He sat down across from Olivia, offering her a grin before taking a sip of his coffee.

"What are you still doing here?" Kat asked, clearly surprised by his sudden appearance. "Don't you live in Los Angles?"

"Yep," Joey said with a nod. "But I figured that it would be fun to hang out here, with everyone, while I have a bit of extra time." Satisfied with that answer, Kat nodded and turned to rejoin the conversation, only to find that it had ended as everyone said good morning to Joey.

"Well, what are we going to do today?" Brian asked cheerfully.

"We could wander around the city," Joey suggested.

"What about the beach?" Joe threw in. "It'll be cooler there, and these three-" here, he gestured to the Marauders, "-can play beach volleyball, if they feel inclined to do so." Everyone quickly called out their agreement to that plan, and cleaned up the table as fast as they could so they could go wake up the people who were still sleeping.

Once everyone was awake, they separated into their rooms to get dressed for their day at the beach. Olivia pulled out a bright blue bikini top cut like one of her sports bras and a matching pair of navy blue boy-short bottoms. Kat turned and saw the suit her friend was holding, which caused her to promptly lunge across the room to snatch it out of her hands.

"You can't wear that!" Kat exclaimed.

"What do you mean I can't wear that?" Olivia asked indignantly. "I like that bathing suit!"

"Olivia, that looks like you're going to go play volleyball," Kat said, hands on her hips.

"I'm planning on playing some beach volleyball, once we get there. I brought a ball and everything," Olivia stated. Kat frowned at that, and Kenzie jumped into the conversation.

"Liv, why don't you wear your other one and we can see if we can find a better volleyball suit down by the beach, okay?" Kenz held out her hands in a placating gesture as she soothed the tension between her two friends. Olivia and Kat both reluctantly nodded, and Olivia put the blue bathing suit away and pulled out her other bikini. This one was cut like a regular bikini, with a tie around her neck and one behind her back. It was striped red, white, navy blue, and yellow, with matching navy blue bottoms. She was distinctly less comfortable in this suit, but once she had pulled on a pair of jean shorts and a black t-shirt, it was a bit better.

Once everyone was finished getting dressed and had packed all their stuff, the whole group left the house and headed for the beach. Joe had reassured them several times that the beach was easily within walking distance, so they were all thoroughly lathered in sunscreen and wearing comfy flip-flops and sunglasses. Olivia walked at the back of the group with a long, languid stride, taking in the sights and sounds of Chicago. She had to admit, even though she didn't like the city, she was enjoying the walk. The sun was shining, with a few white clouds and a gentle, cool breeze to defuse some of the heat.

After a while, Olivia checked the time on her phone. Frowning, she increased her stride until she was just behind Meredith and Mackenzie.

"Hey guys," she said quietly. Both of the others girls started in alarm and whirled around to face her.

"Dear God Olivia!" Kenzie exclaimed in alarm. "Don't sneak up on me like that! Jesus, you're going to give me a heart attack one of these days." Meredith and Olivia couldn't help but laugh at their friend's over-the-top reaction.

"Sorry Kenz," Olivia said through her giggles. "I just noticed that we've been walking for almost 25 minutes. Do we know if Joe actually knows where he's going?"

"He probably has no idea," Meredith chimed in, earning more laughs from Liv and Kenzie.

Olivia stayed with the other two girls as they walked, mostly listening to their chatter and occasionally throwing in a comment or witty remark of her own. She knew it was strange that one of her favorite activities was listening to other people talk, but she didn't really care. You could learn a lot from listening to what people said when they thought you weren't paying attention, which was more valuable to her than having 'normal' habits. Information was an important prize to her, and she was more than happy to get it by less-than-conventional methods. Even if it meant acting like a moving statue sometimes.

It was now forty-five minutes after they'd left the house, and there was still no sign of the beach. Joe could now be seen looking around in confusion, while Kat stared at him in disbelief. Olivia was quite sure that her friend was berating the Starkid for not knowing where he was. The group came to a halt on the street corner, and came to a consensus that they needed to ask for directions. Jaime and Lauren went into a CVS on a nearby corner while everyone else stood around and waited. Olivia very deliberately stayed involved in a conversation with Meredith and Kenz. She had absolutely no desire to talk to Joey just yet.

Lauren and Jaime came out after a moment or two and led the group down a few more streets. Olivia was still looking at all the tall buildings when, suddenly, there was the beach. It was quite the same as beaches in Massachusetts – the swells didn't look as though they could knock you over and she was pretty sure that the water would be noticeably warmer than the Atlantic Ocean, which, by the way, is usually freezing. **(AN: I do not exaggerate. 65 degrees Fahrenheit is warm for the ocean where I live.)**

The group ran like onto the beach whooping and laughing like the overgrown children they were. Everyone pulled out their towels and slung the backpack chairs off their backs and opened them onto the sand. At least four coolers were dropped down beside the towels, and the guys stripped off their shirts as soon as they'd put everything in their arms on the ground.

Olivia looked up from her bag, which she'd placed on the sand, when she felt a tug on her elbow. It was Kat who was now dragging her towards a small store on the edge of the beach. Olivia remembered that Kenzie had said that she could pick out a new bathing suit once they'd arrived at the beach, and it seemed like Kat was all for the idea as well. Olivia laughed and darted back to her bag to grab some money.

As it turned out, the store was much larger inside then it appeared. The girls wandered around for a while until they each found a bathing suit they liked. Olivia darted into a changing room and changed before turning to look at herself in the mirror.

The suit she'd chosen was cut similar to her blue bikini, but there was a bit of a V-neck to it. There was no clasp, and it was black with fake paint splatters all over it. The bottoms were black with splatter as well. She left the dressing room to show her friends, and they exclaimed that she should definitely buy it.

"I mean," Kat said. "You can play volleyball in it and you still look feminine and sexy!" Olivia smacked her friend on the back of the head for that comment and turned a beautiful shade of bright red. Once she had changed back into her other clothes, they went to the register and she bought her new bathing suit. Her friends, when asked, claimed that the suits they picked out didn't fit. Olivia changed into her new bathing suit in a bathroom on the edge of the beach and put her shorts back on before heading out.

Once they were back to the towels, the Marauders lounged around with the other girls, who had opted to stay and bask in the sun rather than go for a swim. Olivia sprawled out on her back, closing her eyes and soaking up the warmth. Her body was naturally cold, so the sun felt like heaven to her. As she sunbathed, she dozed and listened to the conversation around her when she was awake. After a while, for fear of getting sunburned, she flipped onto her stomach and resumed dozing and listening once she was comfortable.

Once she felt that she had dozed and been warmed as much as she could stand for a while, she raised her head and found the scene much the same as it had been when she'd closed her eyes. The other girls were sitting around and chatting and, when she glanced over her shoulder, it was obvious that the guys were still in the water. Sitting up, she grabbed her bag and pulled out her volleyball. She'd won it at a camp a few weeks ago; it was a perfect replica of the once that would be used in the Olympics this year. She held it up for her friends to see, and they immediately leaped to their feet, excitement shining on their faces. Olivia stood with the ball as Kat turned back to the group.

"We need one more, if any of you guys want to play." Almost immediately, Lauren bounced up from her chair, looking excited.

"Oooh, this looks like fun! I'll play with you guys!" So the four girls found an abandoned beach court and took a few minutes to pass and warm up while Meredith, Jaime, Julia, and Denise all dragged their chairs over to watch and keep score. Then they started.

Olivia served first, and went with her jump float serve, which she'd been working on for a while now. It went over smoothly, and Kat (who was on the other team with Lauren) passed it up. Lauren set the ball with her forearms, and Kat drilled it down – straight to a waiting Kenzie, who passed it to Olivia. Olivia, a setter in the indoor version, easily put up a nice, high set that Kenzie drilled down the line.

"Point team us!" Olivia cheered as she high-fived her friend.

The game went on like this for a while, and when they finished the first, they simply started another. Kat, whose hitting had improved throughout the day, managed to fire one behind her two friends earning a point and sending the ball rolling away. Olivia chased it down, and found herself coming up to a guy who was holding her ball with an amused expression.

The guy she was now standing face-to-face with was taller than her, but not too tall, with brown hair that stuck up all over the place a bit and warm hazel eyes. He offered the ball to her with a small smile.

"I would guess this is yours?" He asked amusedly. Olivia immediately noticed his Australian accent as she nodded and took the ball back.

"Yeah, sorry it kind of attacked you," she apologized, making him laugh. "Do I know you from somewhere? You look really familiar." A puzzled look crossed his face as he looked her over.

"You look familiar too. My name's Matt Roberts," he said. "I'm from Adelaide, which is in Australia. I was here for LeakyCon, and I'm staying for a few more days." Olivia's face lit up at the mention of Leaky, and she clapped her hands.

"That's it! I met you at Leaky! You're the Olympic soccer player, right? I'm Olivia Ioria, by the way."

"That's right, I remember you now!" Matt said, nodding. "And you're right, I am on the Australian team." The two chatted for another few minutes, and Olivia ended up inviting him to come over to their game. He agreed and followed her over to the court where her friends were waiting. Kenzie noticed her approach first and nodded towards her, making both Kat and Lauren turn. Kat put her hands on her hips and called out to her.

"There you are! We've been waiting forever!" Olivia snorted at that.

"I don't even think it's been ten minutes Kat. And I met this guy," she said, indicating Matt. "Do you guys remember Matt Roberts from LeakyCon?" Everyone replied that they did, and Matt came forward to introduce himself to the Starkids. He was immediately invited to stay and ended up still being there when the guys came back, so he was introduced to them too and invited to stay for the rest of the time they were at the beach. He was flattered and agreed.

The rest of the day passed all to quickly. Olivia played what felt like hundreds of games of beach volleyball, to the point where her legs ached intensely by the end. She went for a swim, and then flopped around with the others, just chatting and listening to chatter. She found herself sitting beside Matt and talking to him quite a bit. He was curious about Massachusetts, once she told him that's where she was from, and she was overly curious about Australia.

Once it started to get dark, everyone went searching for wood, which they found at a little stand selling small pieces of wood for beach fires. Joe lit the fire for them, and they cooked hot dogs and ate them off of sticks. Everyone was chatting with the people around them, and Olivia was content to sit back and listen to the sounds of her friends, the fire popping and sizzling, and the gentle waves rolling over the sand. Matt, who was sitting beside her, tried engaging her in conversation several times, but she did her best to give monosyllabic answers until he gave up and talked to someone else. She felt a little guilty for that, but she'd been talking to people all day and felt that she deserved some time to just sit and think. Also, she thought that he might be trying to flirt with her a little, and there was no way she was going to let that continue.

After a while of sitting in silence, Olivia slipped out of her chair and started walking down the beach, pulling her sweatshirt on as she did so. She'd noticed Kat and Joe slip away earlier, and deliberately headed in the opposite direction. No way she wanted to come across them doing… well, doing anything. She shuddered slightly at the thought. Kat was like her sister, and no one wanted to see his or her sister with her boyfriend doing couple-y stuff. So Olivia walked down the dark beach alone, enjoying the water that just rushed over her feet.

As she walked, she thought. Not so much about the present, but about college. For the first time in a long time, she felt a small stir of excitement at the thought of being able to play volleyball on a team again. She thought about how she was going to study engineering – again, a spark of excitement as she thought about how she was either going to build things or work with chemicals. She wasn't sure yet, but the college had told her that she'd be able to speak with her guidance counselor there about it. She thought about how she could make a fresh start and how no one there would treat her like glass. She could finally be free to just let herself heal.

A tiny smile crossed Olivia's face as she thought about the creative writing class she'd signed up for, but had conveniently 'forgot' to mention to her parents. Although she knew that they frowned on the idea, she did want to write a book someday. It was just that ideas didn't come to her as easily as they did to some people. Hence taking the class. She was hoping that some of the stuff they did in there would help her come up with an idea that was completely original. So far, all she had was Fanfictions. And she had to admit, for the rather fumbling attempts of a teenager with almost no free time, they were pretty good. At least, that's what the reviewers told her, and she was okay with believing them.

Olivia was startled out of her thoughts by the sound of her own name. She turned and saw someone jogging down the beach toward her. She mentally weighed her options. She could either stand here and let whomever it was come up to her, or she could turn and keep walking. The unidentified person called her name again, and she groaned softly when she recognized Joey's voice.

"Great, the one person I've been trying to avoid all day," she muttered to herself. He bounded up to her, a slight grin on his face. She forced a small smile onto hers.

"There you are," he said cheerfully. "We got a little alarmed when we saw that you weren't in your chair." Olivia resisted the powerful urge to roll her eyes.

"I'm not going to drown myself if that's what you're all afraid of." Hurt and surprise flashed through Joey's eyes at the harsh tone of voice she used. She hadn't meant for it to come out that harsh, but her mouth had other ideas, apparently.

"I don't think that. I just wanted to make sure you were okay," Joey said, sounding a bit like a kicked puppy. Now she felt really bad.

"Sorry," she muttered. "I guess that came out a little harsh." She turned and continued walking, and felt a twinge of annoyance mixed peculiarly with happiness when Joey fell in step beside her.

"Just a little," he agreed. "Don't worry, I forgive you," he added cheekily. Olivia resisted an urge to slap him.

"Good to know," she said shortly. She felt, rather than saw, Joey frown at her.

"Okay, what's up with you today?" Olivia looked over at him, one questioning eyebrow raised.

"What do you mean?"

"You've been avoiding me all day," Joey accused. Olivia stopped short.

"Excuse me?"

"I said, you've been avoiding me all day! Don't think I haven't noticed. You've hardly even looked at me all day. What did I do?" Confusion and anger were written on Joey's face, and Olivia felt her own soften slightly in response.

"It's nothing you did. Well, I guess it is, but I'm not angry, if that's what you're thinking. It's all to do with me." Olivia paused thoughtfully for a moment. "And I suppose it's got something to do with the fact that my entire head is screwed over." She saw a flicker of realization in Joey's eyes.

"This is because I almost kissed you on the roof yesterday, isn't it?" It wasn't really posed as a question, Olivia could see that. Joey was pretty confident that he was right; it shone clearly in his eyes.

"Yep," she said shortly.

"And how on earth does that have anything to do with your psychological condition?" Olivia huffed out an exasperated sigh.

"I'm unstable. Everyone knows that; it's just that no one wants to admit it. I'm fairly positive that one of the absolute worst things I could do right now is enter into a relationship. And it's not just a relationship; it would be a long-distance relationship with a guy who's five years older than me and has crazy fangirls. Not exactly an ideal situation for me. Or you," she added. Now it was Joey's turn to huff in annoyance.

"Olivia, do you think I haven't thought about that? I am well aware of the so-called 'crazy fangirls,' thank you very much. And as for distance – well, it was probably going to be a problem with any girl I meet. And I don't care how old we are. I like you Olivia. I like you a lot." Joey looked very vulnerable at that moment, and the girly and romantic part of Olivia wanted nothing more than to throw her arms around him and agree. Her logical mind, however, was much stronger and drowned out any romantic desires. This wasn't a good idea, and she knew it.

"I'm sorry," she whispered before she turned and fled. Fled from the boy who'd gotten her to open up and finally start coming to grips with who she now was. She angrily scrubbed the tears from her cheeks and prayed she wouldn't live to regret it.

**AN: So there you go. ;) Just had to throw in a little Brian Holden quote there. So yep. Stuff happened in this chapter. Please review and let me know what you think! Thanks to Robs The Universal Warrior for giving me the character of Matt Roberts! Also, the next chapter might be from Kat's POV – remember that little detail where she went on a walk with Joe? ;) So you might get a mini-chapter before the next real chapter. Or maybe a mini-chapter with a mini-preview of the real chapter. I don't even know. It's almost midnight and there's a hurricane coming. So, I will see you all next chapter!**

**~Starship Ranger Moony**


	8. Chapter 7 and a half: The Mini-Chapter

**AN: Hello my beautiful readers! Here's the mini-chapter I mentioned! So it'll be from Kat's POV on her walk with Joe. ;) My supermegafoxyawesomehot beta is the person Kat is based off of, so this is especially for her. I have no idea when the next chapter from Olivia's POV will be up. Hopefully soon! I'm really sorry about the long wait – life keeps getting busier for me! So here's the mini-chapter! Hope you enjoy!**

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Mini-Chapter: (a.k.a. Chapter 7.5) Kat's Walk

Kat settled comfortably in a beach chair while everyone else slowly returned with firewood. She'd already collected her share of the wood and had practically run back to the fire pit site to grab a chair. Now she was giving everyone big grins as they returned and saw her already in a chair.

It took almost twenty minutes, but everyone finally came back. Someone had a lighter, and Joe took it to light the fire. Once it was lit, he tossed the lighter back to its owner and came to sit next to her. Kat felt her heart speed up a little. She'd had a major fangirl-crush on Joe before she'd met him, and it had only gotten worse now that they were friends. He was just as sweet and funny as she'd imagined him to be, not to mention that he was _hot. _That was a bonus.

"So, are you having fun?" Kat was broken out of her thoughts by Joe himself. She turned to him and saw that he was leaning back in his chair, drinking a beer and grinning slightly. She smiled back.

"Yeah, it's really awesome here!" she said cheerfully. Okay, maybe that was a little too excited. Joe laughed at her response.

"Getting excited?" he asked teasingly. She grinned widely.

"Oh, just a little," she replied with equal cheer.

They talked for a while about Chicago and LeakyCon, as well as what they could do over the next few days while the girls were still here. Kat was vaguely aware of everyone else talking around them, but all her attention was focused on Joe. Every time he smiled or laughed, her heart skipped a beat. She wasn't consciously flirting with him, but became aware that their entire conversation made it sound like they were dancing around each other.

"Hey," Joe said after it had gotten dark. "Wanna go for a walk?" Kat nodded, and they both stood. She followed him away from the fire and walked just on the edge of the surf so the water gently rushed over her toes. Joe walked beside her, his feet almost entirely submerged. The water was cold, but Kat didn't mind. Joe's shoulder was gently rubbing against hers and it was sending tingles up and down the entire left side of her torso.

"So," Joe said, breaking the silence with what was possibly the world's most awkward word. She grinned and looked over at him

"So indeed," she replied, borrowing one of Olivia's favorite sayings. He quirked an eyebrow in her direction at the out-of-character response, making her giggle. Just a little, and certainly not in a completely embarrassing and fangirl-like way.

"It's something Olivia would always say whenever someone would start a conversation with her and use 'so' as an opening word," she explained. Joe nodded, understanding lighting up his face.

"Well, that makes more sense. I wouldn't have expected such a proper response from you," he teased with a grin on his face. Kat did her best to look insulted. Then she suddenly stooped down and splashed him with the water lapping at their toes. Water that was extremely cold, seeing as the sun was down.

The shocked look on Joe's face was priceless, and Kat was doubled over in hysterics when her laughter was rudely interrupted by a splash to the face. She sputtered and spat out water as Joe laughed brightly beside her. With a rather evil grin, she splashed him again, making sure to soak him as best she could, and then took off down the beach. It didn't occur to her to flee back towards the campfire; she just kept going the way they had been.

Kat didn't get very far when she heard footsteps behind her. Suddenly, a pair of strong arms lifted her off her feet and swung her around in the air, making her squeal with surprise. Joe stopped spinning her, but didn't put her down. She started squirming, impatient to be back on solid ground.

"I hope you know that I'm seriously considering throwing you in the water right now," Joe told her cheerfully. Kat froze for a minute, then started struggling even more vibrantly. Much to her surprise, she found herself being gently placed on her feet on the sand.

"But I guess I'll be the gentleman, just this once," Joe said as he released her and took a step away. Kat turned to face him.

"Well, I suppose I should thank the gentleman for being so generous," she replied in a mock-proper voice. He gave a little fake bow and she curtsied as best she could without a skirt. Then she leaned over and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

It was really nothing, just a quick and hesitant brush of her lips against his cheek. Kat was pretty sure she was not supposed to feel like her lips had suddenly become a live wire. That was a new one. Joe looked as startled as she felt, looking at her as if she'd just started glowing or something. There was a minute of awkward silence that Joe eventually broke.

"So I'm guessing you felt that too, judging from the look on your face," he finally said. Kat nodded slowly.

"Yes. Yes I most definitely did," she replied, entirely unsure where this conversation was going to go.

"I think… I think that I have no idea what to say," Joe admitted. Kat smiled, but she could feel the blush rising on her cheeks. She didn't know what to say either.

"Maybe," Joe continued tentatively. "Maybe we can just sit? Just sit down here without everyone else?" Not trusting herself to speak, Kat nodded and followed Joe up the sand and away from the water. He settled down on the sand about halfway between the water and the street and patted the sand beside him. She sat with him, enjoying the quiet sound of the water on the sand and the warmth of Joe beside her.

The two sat in silence for a while, until the chill breeze started to get to Kat. She shivered and pulled her knees up to her chest, trying to warm herself. Joe noticed.

"You cold?" he asked, concern in his voice. She nodded and he shifted slightly.

"Come sit with me," he offered, indicating the space in front of him. She hopped over and settled her back against his chest, trying to ignore how her entire body now felt like a live wire. Joe wrapped his arms around her from behind, and she felt warmth begin to spread through her body. Joe was freaking _warm_. After a minute, she felt Joe's head move behind her.

"Better?" Kat couldn't help the shiver that traveled down her spine when Joe's breath gently skimmed over her ear. She had to take a deep breath before answering.

"Yeah, thanks," she managed to get out. She heard and felt Joe chuckle behind her at her answer. She shivered again when she felt his chest vibrating behind her.

"Funny," he murmured in her ear, making her whole body tremble. "You keep shivering. Are you sure you're warm enough?"

Kat wasn't sure what was going to come out of her mouth, but she was pretty sure didn't originally intend to say; "You're a tease."

There was a moment of silence as she and Joe both digested what had come out of her mouth.

"Well," Joe said. "I can stop teasing, if you'd prefer." Kat had to physically stop and take a deep breath at his tone of voice.

"Yes please," she said and _where was this coming from?_ She was pretty sure she heard Joe take a deep breath and then suddenly the warmth behind her was gone. She turned, intending to ask what he was doing but was stopped when she saw his face.

Joe's face was set into a calm and serious expression, except for his blue eyes. He was looking straight into her eyes and his were burning with what she could only have described as desire. Her breath hitched and she felt his fingers hesitantly brush across her cheekbone. Kat let out a shuddery breath, eyes half closed.

"Kat," Joe whispered, and she could feel his warm breath on her face, and her whole body trembled. She felt his nose brush against her and her breathing speed up and her heart was suddenly skipping every other beat and the suspense was _killing _her. And then, suddenly, Joe's lips were hesitantly brushing against hers and it was _wonderful._ She felt her hands gently rest on his shoulders, and felt one of his on her cheek and the other on her hips.

It was only a few seconds before Joe gently pulled away. Kat kept her eyes closed for a second, savoring the way her lips were still tingling. When she opened them, Joe was looking at her with a very intense expression.

"Um," she offered, unable to form a coherent thought. He chuckled softly and gently.

"That was… wow," he offered in response, making her giggle like a kid on Christmas.

"Agreed," she replied.

"Would you maybe want to go on a proper date sometime? Just me and you, none of this running away from the campfire stuff." Kat nodded excitedly.

"Yes. Yes, yes, I would definitely like that," she replied, which made Joe's smile grow huge.

"Okay, you free tomorrow?" he asked.

"Yes, I think so," she replied, her heart threatening to explode out of her chest.

"Dinner at 7 sound good to you?"

"That sounds perfect."

"Okay, we'll leave at 7 then," Joe said, the big grin still on his face. Kat nodded in agreement, thanking her lucky stars that she'd decided to sing in that festival with her best friends.

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**AN: Awww! They're so fluffy! :p So there's my mini-chapter. Kat gets her Joe. She is pleased, as is my beta. This is 4 pages on Microsoft Word; that's about a third of the length of the last chapter, which was 14 pages on the same program. Just to give you an idea of how long my chapters are, on average. Yep, I have no life! Haha, just kidding, I have a small life that writing is a big part of. I don't' have a clue when the next plot chapter will be up. I started writing an Avengers story too, which is called The Dark Times, if anybody's interested! I love you all dearly and I hope to get the next plot chapter out to you soon!**

**~Moony **


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